By MARK JOSEPH UBALDE
THE proclamation of winners may be delayed not by the transmission of the election results but by questions that will be raised in the proceedings, Commission on Elections Chair Jose Melo said Tuesday.
“The proceedings, not the results will delay the proclamation,” Melo said when asked if a proclamation could be made within the day.
In less than 24 hours after the voting closed Monday, Melo said the poll body has counted more than 30 million votes. Although more than two-thirds of the election results are in as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, about five million votes have yet to be counted.
“The results came in faster than you can say ‘Garci,’” he added. (Garci is the nickname of a former election commissioner behind the vote rigging in the 2004 elections that supposedly delivered to President Gloria Arroyo the 1 million votes she had wanted to ensure her victory.)
Earlier, Melo suspended the proceedings of the National Board of Canvassers for the senatorial and party-list elections until 2 p.m. Tuesday after several appeals from various groups.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who is representing senatorial candidate Ralph Recto, asked the Comelec en banc to view the password of the system to check its authenticity. After several minutes of pleading, the Comelec rejected his request.
A member of the Aksyon ng mga Mamamayang Nagkakaisa party-list group, meanwhile, asked the board to let Macalintal have a glimpse of the partial results of the elections of the sectoral groups. His request was also denied.
Then three others asked the Comelec to adjust the projector where the partial results in each region are shown. They said they were having a hard time viewing the screen.
“This proceeding is taking longer than the automated election,” Melo said before announcing the suspension of the proceedings.