Election protests will soon be cheaper once the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decide to give losing candidates an option to use ballot images as basis for the recount. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said this will be done by decrypting the image files from the compact flash cards. “This could save money for the protestant because he will only pay for the decryption and getting the (ballot) image,” he said. At present, the Comelec requires the presentation of contested ballots and ballot boxes in recount proceedings.
Expenses necessary and incidental to the bringing of the ballot boxes, election documents, and devices shall be shouldered by the protestant.
The amendment on the recount procedure, Brillantes said, is among the revisions the commission en banc is looking at before coming out with their Rules on Election Protests. There are already more than 50 poll protest cases filed with the Comelec as of last week, mostly involving local candidates.
Source: Comelec mulls ballot images as recount basis | Sun.Star.