Claim: COMELEC claims that the recently concluded 2022 Elections was successful
Rating: FALSE
Context:
Not even a week after the May 9 elections, and with official canvassing results not even out, COMELEC said that the May 9 elections were successful (Manahan, 2022). The poll body made this claim despite controversies surrounding the elections, prominent of which were VCM breakdowns, widespread disinformation, voter disenfranchisement, and vote-buying cases running into thousands of pesos per voter (Panganiban, 2022; PCIJ, 2022). Almost 50% of complaints validated by Vote Report PH were for VCM errors during election day (Vote Report PH, 2022).
Aside from VCM errors, other issues that plagued the May 9 elections were missing names, long lines, illegal campaigning and red-tagging (De Leon, 2022a; De Leon, 2022b; Fernandez, 2022; Gavilan, 2022; Pazzibugan & Santos, 2022). Despite the secretive nature of vote-buying, Vote Report PH was still able to validate reports of vote-buying in selected regions of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Prior to May 9, there were reports of misuse and abuse of government resources such as the issue regarding the chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) endorsing specific candidates in an official voter education forum with students (Kontra Daya, 2022).
Disinformation was also directed against Makabayan bloc party-list groups and certain senatorial candidates before and during elections, sowing confusion and fear among voters.
These cases of election-related fraud and irregularities require serious investigation, not a blanket denial just to claim success.
Sources:
De Leon, D. (2022a, May 9). 168 vote-counting machines for May 9 polls found defective . Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/vote-counting-machines-malfunction-may-9-2022/
De Leon, D. (2022b, May 9). Comelec justifies last-minute reshuffling of field personnel, mum on details. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/comelec-justifies-last-minute-reshuffling-personnel-mum-details/
Fernandez. D. (2022, May 9). Some 1,800 vote counting machines malfunctioned – Comelec. Inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1594477/fwd-some-1800-vote-counting-machines-malfunctioned-comelec
Gavilan, J. (2022, May 9). Comelec urged to extend voting hours amid long lines, VCM issues. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/comelec-urged-extend-hours-long-lines-vote-counting-machine-issues-2022-polls/
Kontra Daya. (2022, May 8.) Report: CHED chair endorses candidates in student election forum. https://kontradaya.org/report-ched-chair-endorses-candidates-in-student-election-forum/
Manahan, J. (2022, May 11). Comelec maintains #Halalan2022 clean, fair amid reported irregularities. ABS-CBN News. https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/11/22/walang-kaduda-duda-comelec-says-halalan2022-clean
Panganiban, C. (2022, May 15). ‘Vote-buying’ spree drives mobile phone sales. Inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1597711/vote-buying-spree-drives-mobile-phone-sales
Pazzibugan, D., & Santos, T. (2022, May 10). VCM glitches bug polls; Comelec finally not reusing them in 2025. Inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1595198/vcm-glitches-bug-polls-comelec-finally-not-reusing-them-in-2025
PCIJ, (2022, May 9). VCM breakdown cause long lines, massive delay in 2022 polls. https://pcij.org/blog/3351/vcm-breakdown-cause-long-lines-massive-delay-in-2022-polls
Vote Report PH [@votereportph] (2022,May 9). We have documented 133 unique verified campaign incidents so far. Reports of vote-buying (26.4%), disinformation (21.8%), and black propaganda (11.3%) [Tweet, attached image]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/VoteReportPH/status/1523592150600253440
