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Comelec aims to proclaim winning party-list groups in 10 days


The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will try to proclaim winning party-list groups in the 2013 midterm polls in 10 days, Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Sunday.

Brillantes said the Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, will come up with "amendatory rules" to speed up the canvassing of votes for the party-list elections.

“Nag-usap na kami. May preliminary discusssions na kami. We are preparaing for some amendatory rules sa party-list only for the purpose of facilitating the canvassing,” Brillantes told reporters in an interview Sunday.

The Comelec resumed on Sunday the canvassing of votes for the party-list polls after it was suspended by the poll body last Thursday to focus on the senatorial race. The poll body was able to proclaim all 12 winning senatorial bets on Saturday, five days after the elections.

Brillantes however admitted that he expects the canvassing for party-list groups to be more difficult than what the poll body did for the votes for senators.

“Tapos pa lang senators pero mag uumpisa na trabaho namin sa party-list. Ina anticipate namin na mas mahaba pa ang problema sa party-list,” he said.

Election watchdog group Automated Election System (AES) Watch earlier described the 2013 midterm polls as a "technology and political disaster," noting the delay in the transmission of poll results and the supposedly "arbitrary" proclamation of winning candidates.

According to the Party-list System Act (Republic Act 7941), party-list groups that received at least two percent of the total votes cast for the party-list system shall be entitled to one congressional seat each while those who received more than two percent of the votes shall be entitled to additional seats in proportion to their total number of votes.

However, each party-list organization shall not be awarded more than three seats in Congress. — Andreo Calonzo/BM, GMA News

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