105
On the allegation of names not found on the FRR, the witness
testified that all those who voted were names that were on the FRR; that
it was only when there was a challenge in locating one’s name on the FRR
that the presiding officer or NEC’s worker added said person’s name to an
addendum to the FRR. Here is what the witness said:
“Your Honor I like to obtain your permission to illustrate that
over the last few days here, there have been witnesses who
testified that they were allowed to vote because their names
were not in the final registration roll but were added to the
addendum of the roll. I like to state here that all those voters
were actually in our final registration data base. I have
evidence to prove that all those voters were actually register
but couple with the fact that some of them went into the wrong
room, and also some of the staffs were unable to find their
names in the roll they, were added to the addendum. If you can
permit me, Your Honor, after my testimony, we will produce
evidence to prove that those witnesses who claimed that they
were allowed to vote, giving that their names were not on the
final voters roll is false. What actually happened was they went
to the wrong room. There were instances where they never
went to the right room but the staffs there were not able to
find their names on the roll. My testimony your Honor will also
prove that the procedure or the process of addendum to the
final roll is a process that has been practiced and contained in
our regulation as far back as 2005. I will show you evidence
your Honor that these regulations were contained in our file
from 2005, 2011 and 2014. This is to say that the addendum to
the roll is not the making of this current board.”
We are not impressed by this answer given by the witness. The
allegations of the appellants was to the essence of the addendum to the
FRR; that this addendum could only be used for NEC’s workers who are
assigned to areas other than those where they had registered as well as
security officers (police) on duty to a polling place different from the place
where they had registered.
This is the how NEC’s Polling and Counting Manual speaks to these
queries:
“Voting by Polling Staff, NEC Officials On Duty, Election
Security Personnel, International Observers Drivers, And Other
Special Civil Servants
FOR THE ELECTION, POLLING STAFF WILL VOTE AT THE
END OF THE DAY BEFORE THE POLLING PLACES ARE CLOSED.