Comelec: Local Canvassers may Proclaim Winners

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr.announced today that the local boards of canvassers may proclaim winners of the positions in this mid-term elections based on partial results, as long as the remaining votes would not affect the final tally.

This new resolution from the Comelec, Resolution No. 9700, is being promulgated just recently to speed up the canvassing for the national elections, as well as to ease tension among supporters of the candidates in the cities and provinces, who are waiting for the results outside their local Comelec offices.

Brillantes said that these will be “provisional proclamations” and would be considered final, unless the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), which the Comelec sits, will find errors in the counting when the final results are in.

He said the local board of canvassers were now authorized to make the proclamations without going through the election body, as long as by their computations, the remaining untransmitted votes would not affect the results.
In addition, Brillantes also said that they expected to proclaim all the 12 senators at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday or exactly 48 hours after the elections.

The Comelec en banc, reconvened Tuesday morning to begin the tally of election results.