Massive fraud? Votes for partylist groups ‘ridiculously bloated’ by at least 9M – KMU

Votes for partylist groups “ridiculously exceeded” by at least nine million the projected number of votes ahead of the complete count of all election returns (ERs), labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno raised today as it expressed serious doubts on the way votes are being counted.

Partial count of votes (89.37 percent of ERs) as of 9:40 a.m. indicates that 26,915,634 votes were cast for partylist groups – a volume which is highly questionable given the very low partylist awareness among Filipinos and the massive disenfranchisement of voters.

“Given that the partylist awareness rate is at 42 percent, we can assume that only 21 million out of the 50 million registered voters will vote for any partylist group. Then the Comelec itself  claims that voters who were disenfranchised stand at 8 million at the maximum, which means that only 17.64 million votes would be cast for partylists,” explained KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

“So how come there are already 26.9 million votes cast for partylist groups? This indicates that partylist votes could have been ridiculously bloated. This puts into question all claims about ‘clean and successful elections,” Labog added.

KMU also cited the yawning discrepancy between the partylist awareness (42 percent, Pulse Asia survey) two weeks before the polls and what is manifested in the most recent partial count – 82 percent partylist awareness.  The labor group computed this by comparing the number of votes cast for presidential candidates (32.84 million) and the partylist votes (26.9 million).

“How will Comelec and Smartmatic account for the excess votes, which stand at nine million at the minimum? This huge amount of excess votes could not just be a product of minor glitches. It could point to a much grander scheme of electoral fraud,” Labog said.

KMU said Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM consortium should immediately explain what appears to be a hocus-pocus in the count of votes for partylist groups, as this also casts doubt on the count for other elective positions and the entire electoral process itself.

“Filipino workers and the people cannot just accept this grand deceipt. Comelec and Smartmatic should brace for a surge of protests in the coming days,” Labog warned.

Arroyo-backed partylists

“What is also emerging from the most recent partylist count is that Gloria’s partylists will be getting one seat each in Congress. That means that possible cheating in the elections will make Gloria a force to reckon with in the next administration.

“This shows that while Gloria has complied with the US dictate of a ‘smooth transition of power,’ she is still doing everything she can to remain powerful and wield influence – to protect herself from prosecution, and to continue to push for US interests in Congress,” Labog concluded.