CANDIDATES from the government’s coalition party, led by Grace Poe, are leading the senatorial race as of Tuesday morning, according to an unofficial parallel count conducted by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
With results from about 48,291 precincts counted, or nearly 50 percent of total precincts nationwide, Poe, the daughter of famous showbiz celebrities, garnered 13.5 million votes, followed by incumbent Senator Loren Legarda, a consistent topnotcher in pre-election survey, with 12.3 million votes as of 3:05am.
While the unofficial count went under way, election officials also began a random manual audit in selected cities and towns across the country. The audit is designed to verify the votes counted by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
The Commission on Elections, which earlier convened as the National Board of Canvassers, will start the official canvass of votes on Tuesday.
The unofficial count being conducted by the PPCRV, an accredited citizens’ arm of the Comelec, is based on results from PCOS machines transmitted simultaneously to different servers including its owntransparency server, and those of the Comelecand the National Board of Canvassers.
Earlier, the PPCRV reported unusually high numbers but it later apologized for the error. PPCRV chair Henrietta de Villa said the mistake was caused by double-counting because they added their own results to that of the Comelec count.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said they should not be faulted for PPCRV’s errors in their transparency server since they have nothing to do with how the data are decrypted.
The latest PPCRV count showed that nine administration bets and three opposition candidates were in the initial magic 12. The opposition candidates included Nancy Binay, the daughter of Vice-President Jejomar Binay, and Joseph Ejercito Estrada, son of the former president who is also leading the race for mayor of Manila. – Chi Liquicia