Random manual audit to start Wednesday – Comelec
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MANILA – The law-mandated Random Manual Audit (RMA) for the May 12 midterm elections is set to start on Wednesday in Pasay City, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.
Dir. Abigail Claire Llacuna of the Comelec Education and Information Department said the manual auditing of 762 clustered precincts and online voting posts will take place at the Citadines Bay City Manila.
Llacuna, who is also part of the technical working group for the RMA, said they aim to finish the activity in 45 days.
The RMA is the manual examination of the ballots cast to validate the count of the vote-counting machines (VCM) used in the elections. It covers votes for senator, party-list group, congressional representative and mayor.
Section 29 of the Automated Election System (AES) Act states that “there shall be a random manual audit in one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by the Commission in each province and city” where the AES is used.
Aside from the Comelec, other members of the RMA Committee are representatives of the Department of Education, Philippine Statistics Authority, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Comelec Chairperson George Garcia earlier said that since the 2010 elections, the RMA has had 99.9 percent accuracy rates between the manual and automated counting results.
