Comelec: Bishops’ quick count bid faces rough sailing

Making good its promise to safeguard the May 14 elections, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) through its social arm, the National Secretariat Social Action Justice and Peace (Nassa), has sought accreditation to conduct vote count. But Comelec officials doubt Nassa’s capability to launch a quick count. Poll Commissioner Resurreccion Borra said Wednesday that aside from the Nassa, the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and CBCP-NASSA also applied for accreditation to conduct quick count. “We have scheduled for them to meet tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss among themselves how they would go about this and in the afternoon the commission en banc will sit with them," Borra said. But he said the church-based citizens arms would have to show proof that they have the capability to conduct the quick count in order to be allowed to perform the parallel count. Comelec approved the PPCRV’s application to do poll watching and voters’ education. However, PPCRV’s application to do quick count remains pending. Namfrel’s accreditation, according to Borra, still hangs because of the two unresolved issues. Borra said the commissioners are “in the process of accrediting" Namfrel, but the poll watchdog still has two major questions to resolve. One is the issue of Namfrel chairman Jose Concepcion being a village head of Forbes Park, Makati, and the other is its capability to meet the 78-percent completion rate for the quick count. “During our last hearing, we grilled Concepcion on these issues and this would be the points that we would resolve," Borra told reporters in a chance interview. But Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said poll officials are “inclined to approve" Namfrel’s application for a quick count of election results. He said Nassa would have to prove that it is capable of doing a nationwide vote count. -GMANews.TV