The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said it faced unexpected technical issues that delayed the release of its usual election data reports, citing differences in file formats and data inconsistencies.
In a statement released Tuesday, the poll watchdog said it received initial data past 8:15 p.m. Monday, but encountered delays due to varying file formats. It also noticed discrepancies between its internal count and the figures reported by other groups receiving data from the transparency server.
“Out of an abundance of caution and our commitment to accuracy, we held off publishing the results while we verified the data,” PPCRV said.
Upon further verification, the group confirmed that its data was accurate, citing proper filtering of duplicate entries. The verified dataset has now been released.
PPCRV also flagged a significant gap between the election return (ER) data it received and the figures reflected on the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) website.
While the Comelec dashboard showed a transmission rate of 98.75%, PPCRV’s copy accounted for only 79.9% of ERs. The organization said it is actively coordinating with the poll body to understand and resolve this issue.
PPCRV emphasized the importance of ongoing audit processes, including the Random Manual Audit (RMA) and the Unofficial Parallel Count (UPC), to validate election results. The RMA checks for overvoting and ballot issues, while the UPC compares physical ERs with transmitted ones.
“So, the work of auditing starts today,” PPCRV said. “In the spirit of transparency and integrity, we share this explanation with the public. We remain committed to our role as a Citizen’s Arm and will continue to seek clarification and ensure public trust in the process,” it added.