Duterte Youth claims Digong was cheated in 2016 polls

Youth supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday to disqualify Smartmatic as technology provider in future polls over alleged irregularities, claiming he was cheated of votes in last year's polls.

Ronald Cardema, chairman of Duterte Youth, said Duterte should have received more than 20 million votes instead of 16.6 million votes had there been no irregularities.

The group is requesting for a dialogue with the seven-man poll body on June 13 regarding Smartmatic's "numerous violations" committed in the 2010, 2013 and 2016 national elections.

The group proposed to conduct an audio-visual presentation along with the Philippine Computer Society before the Comelec en banc on the supposed election law violations of Smartmatic.

"We want to show that Smartmatic used an additional (intermediary) server during the 2016 elections which was not included in the approved government election flowchart/system," the youth leader told GMA News Online.

"The computer experts from the Philippine Computer Society will show the patterns that direct to the angle the votes were shaved from [then Davao City] Mayor Duterte and other presidential candidates just to boost Mar Roxas to second place," he added.

Cardema however could not say if the "intermediary server" can change the poll results.

"As part of our strong advocacy to support President Duterte's reform agenda in all the departments, agencies, and offices of the Philippine Government, we are mindful of the forthcoming bidding this December 2017 for the service provider who will qualify to conduct the 2019 midterm elections under the Duterte administration," the group said in its letter.

"Hence, we have decided to take an active part to ensure that violations made in the past will never be repeated and to ensure that the genuine will of the Filipino people will no longer be dependent on the malfunctioning/flawed system of a foreign service provider," the Duterte Youth added, referring to the Venezuelan firm.

Smartmatic has been the country's poll technology provider since the Philippines adopted the automated voting technology in 2010. —JST, GMA News