The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has limited the grounds for pre-proclamation controversies to two issues — illegal composition of the Board of Canvassers (BoC) and illegal proceedings of the BoC.

Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said unlike in the past, pre-proclamation controversy will cover only two points.

“We used to allow complaints such as on the preparations of the election returns while the teachers are still manually counting the votes. That will no longer be allowed. Even the complaint on the veracity of the ERs, we also got rid of that. Now, what you  are going to challenged only is the board,” he said.

Jimenez said that the limitation will speed up the whole process.

“The basis for the proclamation is the electronic transmission. If you are going to bog down the electronic transmission by having all these motions available you render the benefit illusory,” he said.

Based on Comelec Resolution No. 8804, there is illegal composition of the BOC when any of the members do not possess legal qualifications and appointments.

“The information technology capable person required to assist the BOC by Republic Act. No. 9369 shall be included as among those whose lack of qualifications may be questioned,” the resolution promulgated last March 22 stated.

Authorities said that there is illegal proceedings of the BOC when the canvassing is a sham or mere ceremony, the results of which are pre-determined and manipulated as when any of the following circumstances are present: Precipitate canvassing; terrorism; lack of sufficient notice to the members of the BOCs; and improper venue.

A pre-proclamation controversy refers to the proceedings of the BOC which may be raised by any candidate or by any registered political party or coalition of political parties, or by any accredited and participating party-list group, before the board or directly with the Commission.

Also, due to concerns on the Automated Election System (AES), the citizens’ watchdogs have asked for a bigger random manual audit (RMA) in the May 10 polls.

The AES watch, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), issued the call after they found out that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) plan to limit the RMA to one precinct for every congressional district is insufficient given that there are 76,000 clustered precincts nationwide.

‘The RMA is central to ensuring the integrity of the May 10 elections given that the pleas of concerned citizens’ groups for measures to address the internal vulnerabilities of the AES have remained unanswered,” Alfredo Pascual, AES convenor, said.