Comelec junks claims of early transmission of election returns
Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday disproved allegations by a group led by former Gen. Eliseo Rio Jr. that there was early transmission of election returns (ERs) before voting hours closed in the May 9 elections last year, saying a firewall “restricts and validates” the transfer of votes.
In a statement, Comelec said the network activity detected in the logs of telecom provider Globe Telecom was a system “connection” between the municipal board of canvassers (MBOC) and the consolidated canvassing system, and not the transfer of votes.
“At 1 p.m. a [canvassing system] connection from the MBOC was identified, which was caused by the [system] power-up that triggered the network activity that created the telco logs,” it explained.
The poll body stressed that the recorded data before 7 p.m., or when the casting votes ended, “[do] not equate to the transmission of ERs.”
‘Network data, not election data’
A separate activity found in the logs of Smart Communications was the activation of “network data, not election data” that were active from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, it noted.
Article continues after this advertisementIt added that the Smart telco logs showed only the “software-defined wide area network” (SD-WAN) in the towns of Alabel in Sarangani and Agoo in La Union, Agoncillo in Batangas, as well as the city of Sagay in Negros Occidental.
Article continues after this advertisement“The volume of traffic … refers not to election data, but rather to network data needed to monitor the status of the SD-WAN device,” Comelec said.
This means, it said, that there were “two” network traffic: “The network monitoring traffic before 7 p.m. and the election results network traffic after 7 p.m.”
The poll body further pointed out that it was “not possible” for the telco logs to show that a foreign or illegal device sent ERs because “only a [vote-counting machine] can connect and transmit using validated digital certificates” and that a firewall prohibits the transfer of votes before polling hours closed. INQ
