8 out of 10 Filipinos believe May elections were credible — Pulse Asia survey 

EIGHT out of 10 Filipinos or 82% believe the results of the May 9 national and local elections were accurate and credible, according to a survey conducted by Pulse Asia Research, Inc. 

Majority of Filipinos or 89% were also satisfied with the automated election system and want to continue automated voting, based on the survey results released on Monday.   

“Almost every Filipino adult who reported voting in the recent elections (95%) found it very easy/easy to use the vote counting machines,” Pulse Asia said in a statement.  

The pollster interviewed 1,200 adults from June 24 to 27. The survey results have an error margin of ±2.8 points.  

Only 4% of the respondents expressed distrust in the election results and were dissatisfied with the automated voting system.  

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. won in the first landslide victory in four decades, securing over 31 million votes out of 65.75 million registered voters.  

“While the 2022 national and local elections were far from being perfect, the situations on the ground on election day reflect a generally successful conduct of the polls save from a few isolated incidents,” Acting Chairperson of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Socorro B. Inting said in an online forum that discussed the poll’s findings.  

“However, your Comelec is not oblivious to malfunctions of vote-counting machines and SD cards,” she said.   

Comelec earlier said 1,867 machines encountered paper jams, rejected ballots, and faulty printing of election returns, which it said were promptly resolved.  

Ms. Inting added that it was unfair to negatively judge the election body for the “minuscule” number of malfunctions.  

In the same forum, acting Comelec Spokesperson John Rex C. Laudiangco pointed out that the May 9 elections saw fewer election-related violent incidents with 27 compared with 133 in 2016.  

On the other hand, the International Coalition for Human Rights (ICHRP) said last month its International Observer Mission (IOM) concluded that this year’s elections did not meet the standards of free, honest, and fair voting due to numerous reports of human rights violations and incidents pointing to fraud.  

The IOM was a collaboration between the international coalition, election watchdog Kontra Daya, and academics worldwide. 

ICHRP called for a revamp of the automated election system since it had reported thousands of voters being unable to vote due to technical blunders. — John Victor D. Ordoñez