Comelec: No Sunday proclamation of winners in Senate, party-list polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday said it will not push through with the proclamation on Sunday of winners in the recently concluded senatorial and party-list elections.

This was announced by Comelec Director Frances Arabe hours after the poll body, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, resumed the canvassing of votes.

Comelec Director Frances Arabe says proclamation of winners will not push through tomorrow as earlier announced.

— Ted Cordero (@Ted_Cordero) May 18, 2019

The NBOC has so far canvassed 149 out of 167 certificates of canvass. 

The Comelec official said there are at least 13 COCs pending to be transmitted to the poll body.

The COCs are from the following areas:

• Lanao del Sur
• Isabela
• Zamboanga del Norte
• Zamboanga del Sur
• Washington DC
• Japan
• Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait
• Oslo
• Abuja
• Nairobi
• Tehran
• Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL)

"There might be some pending issues also either on the transmission, SD card," Arabe said.

"The COCs are going to be manually delivered here from certain areas. That is why they must fly here, 'yung mga abroad," she said.

"'Yung mga electronic transmission alam na natin 'yung Lanao del Sur, Isabela, Zamboanga del Norte eto 'yung problematic ang VCMs and SD cards. It was already resolved, undergoing the batch feeding," she added.

As for the case in Jones, Isabela, the Comelec official said there is a pending recommendation to the Commission en banc to hold special elections on May 20.

"This involves one precinct na nasunog," Arabe said, noting that there are around 1,000 votes affected, which can affect the outcome of the local elections thus the request for a special elections.

On the other hand, the Office of the Regional Director in Zamboanga del Sur is waiting for a formal request of the election officer in San Pablo, where a VCM was burned, to lower the threshold so the municipality can proceed to proclaim the winners for local posts.

All of the pending issues need to be resolved so the Comelec can complete its canvassing and at the same time proclaim winners for national positions.

"We have to wait for all of them," Arabe said.

"It depends if we can finish all the COCs tomorrow. Sobrang tentative pa... We really want to proclaim after the completion of canvassing," she said.

On Friday, at least two sources have confirmed to GMA News Online that some of the winning senatorial candidates have been invited to formal proclamation ceremonies on Sunday afternoon.

The invited bets  had also been advised to give the Commission on Elections the names of their companions to the rites this weekend.

The proclamation was supposedly set at 4 p.m. — MDM, GMA News