Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said that the poll body agency is looking to proclaim the 12 winning senators either on Tuesday or Thursday.
“We cannot proclaim them this weekend because we still have special elections [on Saturday],” Bautista told the reporters on Friday.
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, for her part, said the poll body, sitting as the National Board Canvassers, could proclaim the winning either May 17 (Tuesday) or May 19 (Thursday).
On Saturday, there are a total of 19,791 voters who are expected to again cast their ballots in special elections in 14 towns and 55 clustered precincts.
These are Cordova, Cebu; Maitum, Sarangani; Sta. Cruz, Marinduque; Anini-y, Antique; Lope de Vega, Northern Samar; Matuguinao, Western Samar; Binidayan, Lanao del Sur; Pata, Sulu; Panglima Estino, Sulu; Tamparan, Lanao del Sur; Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao; Loreto, Agusan del Sur; and Hinigaran, Negros Occidental.
The special elections will be held after the poll body declared a failure of elections in the aforementioned areas on Tuesday because of security concerns, lack of official ballots and misdelivery of official ballots, among others.
Bautista boasted that as of Friday, they have received 95 percent of certificate of canvass from 92,905 clustered precincts.
The poll chief said they have not released an official tabulation of votes because they want to make sure that all provinces are able to transmit the COC. “It just gives you the total but you don’t know where it’s coming from,” Bautista said.
He then advised the public and other party-list groups to just tally the votes from its transparency server which has been shown from the PPCRV.
“We have servers. You can see the numbers there,” he said in response to the complaint of Abono-partylist secretary general Raul Casipit who questioned why the Comelec has not released data on the results of the party-list elections.
Casipit said the canvassed reports are important because they provide all stakeholders an aggregate of official votes for specific periods.
“They should provide us with the canvassed reports that are signed by whoever is the authorized signatory,” Casipit said.