Comelec insists 2022 polls not rigged

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has insisted that the results of the 2022 polls were not rigged.

In the latest episode of ''The Mangahas Interviews,'' Comelec Chairperson George Garcia disputed the allegations of former Information and Communications undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. regarding how the transmission of votes occurred.

According to the Makabayan bloc, which sought a legislative inquiry into the matter, ''Rio's team of computer forensic examiners discovered that a significant percentage of precinct results in Metro Manila and two provinces were received from a single private IP address, namely 192.168.0.2.''

The Makabayan bloc said the data was gathered from "raw files" from the Comelec website, ''which contain precinct identification numbers and private IP addresses of the transmitting vote counting machine.''

The bloc said the ''usage of a single private IP address for the transmission of such a large portion of election results raises suspicions of manipulation and calls into question the integrity of the automated electoral system.''

“Ang isa lang na sinasabi natin, mali po ang paggamit ng ‘single IP (address)’, dapat po talaga ang tawag doon ay ‘single gateway.’ Sila na rin po ang nagsabi, sabi po nila maaaring iyan ay ligal. Tama po ligal ‘yan pero may technical problem, may technical issue,” Garcia told veteran journalist Malou Mangahas.

He added that the findings of the random manual audit of votes matched 99.93% of the election returns.

A random manual audit checks the performance of vote counting machines and examines ballots to validate accuracy.

“Ang findings, binuksan ‘yung ballot boxes, binilang manually ang balota. Aba ay ‘yung result ay tumugma 99.93% sa mismo na print na election returns at mismong transmitted na result sa bayan o siyudad,” Garcia said.

''NAMFREL (National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections) at PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) na po ang nagsabi,” he said, referring to the country's poll watchdogs.  — with Llanesca Panti/VBL, GMA Integrated News