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Mata sa Balota files complaint vs Comelec officials over election anomalies

Mata sa Balota files complaint vs Comelec officials over election anomalies

By Czarina Nicole Ong-Ki The election transparency watchdog group Mata sa Balota has filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Executive Director Jose Marundan Tolentino and several others due to the reported anomalies that took place during the 2019 midterm elections.

Mata sa Balota (FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)

Mata sa Balota (FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN) Complainants Manuel Galvez, Diego Magpantay, Dr. Nelson Celis, and Melchor Magdamo want Tolentino, together with Deputy Teopisto Elnas Jr., Director James Arthur Jimenez and the management of Smartmatic, charged with serious dishonesty and gross neglect of duty. They complained about the "latest electoral disaster," which they say the media has been downplaying as a mere "glitch." The Department of Education (DepEd) reportedly mentioned 1,333 vote counting machines (VCM) breakdowns as of election day, which the group said was 38.7 percent worse than the Comelec count for VCM malfunctions. This was very alarming for the Mata sa Balota complainants, since "one percent error can enthrone and dethrone the last remaining slots in the senatorial and party list race as well as in local legislative bodies." "Colossal Comelec Smartmatic electoral atrocities are too enormous to fit into a single complaint by a few complainants," they said. "We propose to the Honorable Office of the Ombudsman the creation of a Task Force that shall consolidate all complaints against the COMELEC Smartmatic 'riding in tandem' to save COMELEC as an institution and stop the recidivistic multiple rapes of Philippine democracy by a foreign entity," they added. They hope that the Ombudsman would charge the officials for serious dishonesty and gross neglect of duty, and move for their immediate preventive suspension. #MatalinongBoto2019

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