Unofficial tallies from the elections commission show Aquino has an insurmountable lead of more than 5 million votes over his nearest rival, former president Joseph Estrada, in the May 10 vote, but the contest for vice president is much tighter.
A joint session of Congress for the official canvass started on Tuesday. Proceedings started late and the approval of administrative items, including the rules of the canvass, could delay to Wednesday the start of counting.
Aquino’s convincing win is not seen at risk in the canvass, although politics may stretch out the process.
“We cannot allow anyone to derail the democracy of our nation,” Juan Miguel Zubiri, a senator allied with outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, told reporters, adding protests would not be entertained in the official vote tally.
It was possible Aquino could be declared president first and vice-president announced at a separate time, Zubiri said.
In the unofficial tallies for vice president, Jejomar Binay, who ran on Estrada’s ticket, leads Aquino’s running mate, Mar Roxas, by around 800,000 votes with about 90 percent counted.
“We’ll make sure we can accomplish our work so that the country can have a president and a vice president to succeed the president and vice president on June 30,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters.
“I would say that the earliest we can proclaim is June 4; the latest, as far as I am concerned, is June 15.”
Security around the lower house of Congress was tightened on Tuesday as more than 200 ballot boxes containing tallies from provinces, cities and foreign missions were delivered for the national vote tally. Lawmakers will have to grapple with some technical details of the automated voting, with explanations needed for any discrepancies between the results transmitted electronically and those printed from machines.
House of Representatives speaker Prospero Nograles cited a computer server that showed more than 256 million registered voters. There are about 50.7 million registered voters and more than 35 million voted on May 10, based on records from the poll agency. In extreme cases, lawmakers may have to open specific ballot boxes and summon teachers who served as election officers to explain why figures do not add up. “We can assure the public we will not entertain dilatory tactics,” said Nograles, adding any protests about the vote were not a matter for the joint sitting. “The evidence of fraud won’t be entertained in the canvass.”
Since last week, a House of Representatives committee has been holding a public inquiry on allegations of election fraud, hearing claims of machine tampering, vote buying, vote padding and sale of pre-programmed memory cards. The allegations center mostly on local level positions, and none of the claims has been proven as yet.
