THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) intends to proclaim the winning senatorial bets in last Monday’s election this Friday or Saturday.
In a press conference, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said, “We expect the canvassing to be quick. Hopefully, we can have the proclamation by Friday or Saturday.”
He cited as an example the 30 Certificates of Canvass (COCs) received by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) yesterday.
“We will do it continuously as long as they continue to be transmitted to the NBOC,” Garcia said. “However, if we don’t have any COCs to canvass, we will have to suspend the (NBOC) proceedings.”
A total of 175 COCs will be canvassed by the NBOC, particularly the votes for senator and party-list organizations from 82 provinces, 26 highly urbanized cities, 64 overseas posts, one local absentee voting, and two legislative districts.
As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the NBOC has canvassed 13 COCs, including those for the Local Absentee Voting, Baguio City, and Ifugao.
Also canvassed were COCs from overseas, namely, Timor Leste, Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, Chile, the Czech Republic, Jordan, and Sweden.
The NBOC is expected to start releasing “partial and official” tally today, Wednesday.
Poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting said election returns from Luzon and the Visayas are expected to start arriving last night.
PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said they have already received around 2,300 printed election returns from the National Capital Region, mostly from Makati, Manila, Pasay, Quezon City, and Mandaluyong.
Singson said election returns from Mindanao are expected to arrive “within two days.”
“Hopefully, there are some that will be coming in tomorrow,” Singson said. – With Ashzel Hachero
