ELECTION RIGGING 2022 (MORE)
Soon after the Philippine presidential election on May 9, 2022, I had written that it was not possible to express full confidence in the results of the Automated Election System implemented by Comelec.
Nelson Celis, PhD, of AES Watch had cited “too many gaps” in the AES.
See:
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2022/05/18/2181925/last-credibility-checkrandom-manual-audit
—Jarius Bondoc, “OPINION: Last credibility check: random manual audit,” philstar GLOBAL, May 18, 2022
I said that I couldn’t comment meaningfully on the gaps detailed by Celis because I am not an information technology expert.
However, I also said, “It doesn’t require information technology expertise to understand the lapses cited, including COMELEC’s failure to allow the audit of the printing of 70 percent of the ballots as well as its negligence in not making accessible to information technology experts the results of the electoral controls that had been implemented pursuant to Section 11 of the Automated Election Systems Law.”
Furthermore, “Because the 1.6 percent difference discovered by the PPCRV audit that was reported…would be significant in close races, it behooves the COMELEC to identify the source of the discrepancy besides officially resolving it.”
I particularly expressed grave dissatisfaction with the manual audit of the electronic results. “The Random Manual Audit…is defective. The lack of an information technology review of the Automated Random Selection Program is a significant slip, together with the absence or lack of transparency in running the random numbers program and in transporting the ballot boxes from the randomly selected precincts to the Manila venue.”
I concluded, “Gaps in the Automated Election Systems (AES) that allow the COMELEC or its assigns to tamper with the system—whether software, hardware, or both—including gaps in the system audit, do not allow us to profess full confidence in the integrity of the AES.”
Many months later, in January this year, I observed that there was “no smoking gun” and that “If cheating took place, it was apparently not of sufficient magnitude to change the electoral outcome for president.”
I posted my comments at this link:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2022/05/electronic-rigging-2022_0478379005.html
At this point, it now appears that Comelec may have rigged the results, according to the Namfrel final report on the 2022 elections:
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Poll watchdog Namfrel uncovered software flaws in the 2022 automated election. Comelec ignored its warnings of potential cheating.
Retired general Eliseo Rio sees this as another proof that the presidential-VP race was rigged. No explanations from Comelec.
This unfolds while a retired colonel poises impeachment raps against five poll commissioners for refusing to present records. Also, as the Supreme Court deadline lapses for Comelec to justify such refusal.
Namfrel has posted on its website an 89-page Final Report: 2022 National-Local Elections. Pages 23-24 detail its discovery of discrepancies. The vote counting machine (VCM) source code differed from the hash code. This indicated possible program tampering.
Rio has been questioning the deluge of 20 million-plus votes for president and VP an hour from balloting’s end last May 9. Physically impossible, the electronic communication engineer says. At their close at 7 p.m. on May 9, the 107,345 precincts had first to complete nine Comelec steps before transmitting VCM counts to the Transparency Server.
The nine steps take more than 30 minutes. Longest is the VCM printing of eight copies of all the votes of all candidates for president, VP, senator, party-list, congressman and local positions. Rio was secretary of Information-Communication Technology and thus Comelec Advisory Committee chairman for the 2019 election.
…The human-readable source code consists of commands to the VCMs written by programmers. The hash code is a computer-generated “fingerprint” of the software. “If a change in the software is introduced, a different hash code will be generated,” Namfrel explained.
Comelec posted the hash code in its website in February 2022 for info-technologists’ perusal. As safeguard, it is printed on the diagnostic report upon VCM startup.
Namfrel’s IT team noticed something wrong during Comelec’s end-to-end demonstration of the election system on Mar. 22, 2022: “The VCM System Hash Code shown during the demo did not match what was published during the second Final Trusted Build.”
Namfrel emailed Commissioner Marlon Casquejo about it the next day. No reply. Instead, Comelec posted on Mar. 24 on its website a supposed admission by its international certifier Pro V&V of human typographical error.
Namfrel again wrote Casquejo on Mar. 25 seeking five documents. Those pertained to Pro V&V’s encoding and compliance with hash code protocols. It sought independent verification. Again, no reply.
“The process of building components into a system, which included the generation of the system hash, was never shown publicly. Aside from the VCM System Hash, no other hash codes were shared for public check,” Namfrel concluded. “Without the system hash generation in full view of stakeholders, the source code that Namfrel saw and reviewed could be different from what was used by the VCMs on Election Day. In layman terms, this software used on the VCMs on Election Day … could have been edited.”
“Flimsy!” Namfrel chairman Lito Averia described in an interview Pro V&V’s alibi of typo error. Comelec’s multimillion-dollar contractor shouldn’t have manually encoded the hash code. For accuracy, IT professionals simply copy and paste it to websites or other electronic documents. Averia came upon the hash code discrepancies minutes into the Comelec demo.
…Once AFP deputy chief for research and development, Rio avers that the flood of results by 8:02 election night was meant to condition voters’ minds. Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte from the start led the presidential and VP races till returns tapered off in four days.
VCMs were rigged, Rio says. Last November he petitioned the Supreme Court to order Comelec to disclose the transmission logs lest they be deleted. The SC gave the poll body ten working days from Feb. 28 to reply.
Retired Col. Leonardo Odono sought the same Comelec records “in the exercise of my constitutional right of access to information.” Ignored since November, the PMA 1964 graduate is conferring with congressmen to impeach five of the seven commissioners for “conspiracy of silence”.
end
—Jarius Bondoc, “OPINION: Namfrel findings support general’s suspicion of 2022 election rigging,” philstar GLOBAL, March 17, 2023
So far, there has been no report of compliance by Comelec with the Supreme Court order to submit the transmission logs.
Suspicion also remains that voters’ minds had been conditioned by the Pulse Asia surveys to accept the electronic results in favor of Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte.
“Is the population being primed by a survey firm already covertly compromised to accept electoral results that will be prospectively doctored through electronic cheating?”
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2022/05/placeholder-2-of-2.html
All things considered, it appears that not only is the Automated Election System (AES) as it had been configured by Comelec last year insufficient to vouch for the integrity of the results of the 2022 elections but that the groundwork has now been laid for massive electronic cheating using the same doctored system, in future elections and particularly during the presidential elections in 2028.
“Smartmatic is only as honest and accurate as the type of people who operate and manage them. Maaaring may mandaraya sa operators or managers or both. What kind of safeguards do we have to ensure an honest and fair elections in 2024 or 2028?”
Photo courtesy of Patrickroque01
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COMELEC_Smartmatic_VCM_Demo_SM_Marikina_subo_%28Marcos_Highway,_Marikina;_04-22-2022%29.jpg
Gonzalinho
THE SMOKING GUN
ReplyDeleteIn their separate judicial affidavits, three petitioners for a writ of mandamus filed before the Supreme Court swore and stated the gist of their petition:
“I hope the Supreme Court will promulgate a politically neutral provisional remedy, as soon as possible, before the 9th of November 2022, directing the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the telecommunications companies (DITO Telecommunity and Globe Telecom and Smart Communications) to preserve the subscriber and cyber traffic data integrity of the national election results transmitted from 7 p.m. to at least 9 p.m. of May 09, 2022.” This is also in the title of the petition for mandamus filed with the Supreme Court on Nov. 3, 2022.
The petitioners are Augusto Cadelina Lagman, Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., and Franklin Fayloga Ysaac. Lagman is former chair of election watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections and president of Philippine Computer Society. Rio is former Department of Information and Communications Technology secretary. Ysaac is former president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines. In social media, they are called TNTrio.
…I have a copy of the 100-page petition for mandamus, much of which are supporting documents, showing proofs of the petition’s urgency and the “smoking guns.” It also includes a list of letters, pleadings, and affidavits pertinent to the case that show “procedures rendering improbable (almost impossible) transmission of election result within an hour from closing of polls.”
In simple words: How did an avalanche of election results favoring presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. get transmitted in so short a time? The “witching hour”—to use Halloween parlance—was 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. of May 9, 2022, but most especially between 7 p.m. and 7:17 p.m. or thereabouts.
…The mandamus petition may look intimidating because of the legalese and technicalese, but it really boils down to this, in the words of lawyer Oswald Magno, forum moderator in Toronto: “The uncanny speed of vote reporting plus the statistically improbable constant vote ratio among the presidential candidates is the smoking gun.”
The petition couldn’t be more direct: “If Comelec cannot show the public that at least 2,000 transmission reports were received electronically that have the date/time stamp between 7:00 pm and 7:17 pm as of May 9, 2022 then the only conclusion that can be derived is that such numbers were preloaded into the transparency and/or Comelec servers.” Preloaded, remember the word.
“We challenge Comelec to demonstrate to the public that all activities required in its General Instructions, including the printing of the election return (ER), can be done in less than 17 minutes before any transmission is made … We further appeal to the poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting to tell the public whether, in their manual count of the printed ERs given to them, they could account for at least 2,000 Transmission Reports of ERs with date/time stamps between 7 p.m. and 7:17 p.m. If none of these can be shown or proven, then the data being shown in the Transparency Server is fraudulent from the very beginning.”
The mandamus petition also showed, through dazzling graphs and charts, how “mathematically, logically, and statistically highly improbable if not impossible” the initial Comelec results were.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/162075/via-crucis-sc-petition-with-smoking-gun#ixzz7xZw1U7CD
—Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, “Via crucis: SC petition with smoking gun,” Philippine Daily Inquirer (March 31, 2023)
We found it—the smoking gun. It’s Marcos’ legacy of massive cheating at elections followed by plunder and political instability, courtesy of Duterte and Marcos Jr.
Gonzalinho
COMELEC AND THE MYSTERIOUS IP 192.168.0.2
ReplyDeleteBy: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:11 AM August 04, 2023
…What is being referred to as the “smoking gun” by those who had been monitoring how election results were transmitted from the voting precincts to the end recipients is—techies, hold your breath—IP 192.168.0.2, an unknown, private internet protocol (IP) address through which millions of votes passed for the initial tallying during the first crucial minutes and not through the designated telcos—Globe, Smart, and Dito. In techie parlance, the mysterious IP 192.168.0.2 is called “man in the middle.” In my mind, something like an interloper that, perhaps, came in “preloaded.” Remember the word.
The members of the group called TNTrio, composed of veterans in the communications field and therefore were not born yesterday, are the voices in the wilderness that call for Comelec to get to the bottom of it all. To say it briefly, how did one candidate garner an avalanche of votes transmitted in the first few minutes after 7 p.m.—I call it the witching hour—even while the voting precincts were just closing and precinct personnel—the school teachers, bless them—have not even found time to go to the restroom or grab a drink before transmitting what’s inside the voting machines and do other chores besides, like printing, etc.?
This puzzling occurrence is among the issues raised in the writ of mandamus petition filed with the Supreme Court (I have a copy) by several individuals, namely, Augusto Cedelina Lagman, Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., and Franklin Fayloga Ysaac. Lagman is former chair of election watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections and former president of the Philippine Computer Society. Rio is former Department of Information and Communications Technology undersecretary. Ysaac is former president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines. They are called TNTrio on social media. In discussion groups, they are often joined by retired Col. Leonardo Odoño and Mel Magdamo, former senior lawyer in the Comelec.
…Now going the rounds on social media is an animated meme with suspenseful sound effects that says “Comelec must explain the mysterious IP 192.168.0.2*” with the footnote “*the unknown private IP address that transmitted election returns during the 2022 national elections,” (https://fb.watch/m9uWsRz_Oz/). IP address means “internet protocol address.” It is a numerical label that “identifies a network or device on the internet” and “uniquely identifies the locations of each computer or device connected to the internet or any other network.”
IP 192.168.0.2 came from out of the mist, so to speak, and no one has given a satisfying explanation on how it got into the picture. Rio said that Comelec chair George Garcia has admitted (oh, he admitted!) that 20,300 vote counting machine (VCM) modems had exactly the same IP address—192.168.0.2—something that “is technically impossible.” Unless.
Rio challenged Garcia’s press statement that “ … we can always refer to the actual paper ballot as well as its digitally captured image” to check the accuracy, integrity, and legitimacy of the 2022 elections, by a random manual audit of even just 1 percent of all the 20,300 VCMs (or 203 VCMs publicly selected at random) that has an IP address of 192.168.0.2. Get on with it!
Send feedback to cerespd@gmail.com
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/165310/comelec-and-the-mysterious-ip-192-168-0-2#ixzz8Ad46UqVi
To be continued
Gonzalinho
COMELEC AND THE MYSTERIOUS IP 192.168.0.2
DeleteBy: Ma. Ceres P. Doyo - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:11 AM August 04, 2023
Continued
The random manual audit should have been done right after the 2022 elections. It was never done. See my May 10, 2022 blog post:
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The step involving a Random Manual Audit (RMA) is reassuring as long as it is conducted by independent parties.
However, the RMA is conducted under direct COMELEC supervision.
See:
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1595483/fwd-we-are-here-to-erase-doubts-comelec-kicks-off-conduct-of-random-manual-audit
—Christia Marie Ramos, “‘We are here to erase doubts’: Comelec kicks off random manual audit of votes,” Inquirer.net (May 10, 2022)
end
begin
Random manual audit (RMA) – Ballots in 759 precincts, one per district or 607,200 votes, are to be manually checked against the ERs. Those must be chosen publicly by tambiolo at the close of balloting. Precinct inspectors must then commence audits, observed by party reps, watchdogs and voters. Since 2013 the selection has been behind closed doors. This 2022 Comelec did it via an Automated Random Selection Program in a laptop. Celis and Rio doubt if the ARSP source code was reviewed at all. The RMA is being held in a Manila venue. Comelec gave field offices two to five days to send over the ballot boxes. Who will transport the boxes? Are those properly sealed and padlocked? The RMA supervisor, watchdog National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, does not know the logistics firm; nor does it hold the padlock keys. “The teacher-auditors are in a bubble; they’re incommunicado,” says Namfrel chairman Gus Lagman, also former Comelec commissioner.
All these dent the credibility of Election 2022.
But there’s a remedy. Publicly re-select the 759 precincts. To shorten the time, prepare one tambiolo for each region. Open the audit to the public.
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2022/05/18/2181925/last-credibility-checkrandom-manual-audit
—Jarius Bondoc, “OPINION: Last credibility check: random manual audit,” philstar GLOBAL, May 18, 2022
…The Random Manual Audit reported…is defective. The lack of an information technology review of the Automated Random Selection Program is a significant slip, together with the absence or lack of transparency in running the random numbers program and in transporting the ballot boxes from the randomly selected precincts to the Manila venue.
end
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2022/05/electronic-rigging-2022_0478379005.html
Gonzalinho
Comments on “Comelec and the mysterious IP 192.168.0.2,” by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, August 4, 2023:
ReplyDeleteMainstream media should continue to hammer on this issue! The problem is the apparent lack of sufficient knowledge among ordinary citizens of how a computerized application such as the electoral voting system can be manipulated, distorted, mangled to produce fraudulent results. Better revert to the manual system.
adel mananghaya
Just because it is difficult to understand [should not] stop us from ferreting out the truth. If the integrity of the election is compromised, what is the point of [an] election? Therefore, we should carry through to the conclusion of the investigation of the highly doubtful IP address otherwise, it will be permanent manipulation of the people’s will!
Felipe Soriano
Philippine Daily Inquirer (August 8, 2023)
Gonzalinho
The Philippine people have to bring the persons responsible to account besides redesigning and re-engineering the electoral system—or else we are all going to regress to the abominable conditions under the massively corrupt dictatorship of the Marcos Sr. period.
DeleteGonzalinho
Comment on “Techie’s IP 192.168.0.2 ‘for dummies’” by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, August 11, 2023:
ReplyDeleteEnsuring a clean national election is of the highest level of national interest. Therefore, finding the answer to the use of private internet protocol address 192.168.0.2 is as important as preventing China from occupying our EEZ at the WPS or preventing anyone from committing a massive economic sabotage against our country.
Felipe Soriano
Philippine Daily Inquirer (August 12, 2023)
Gonzalinho
COMELEC’S LACKLUSTER CHOICE
ReplyDeletePhilippine Daily Inquirer / 05:03 AM March 23, 2024
…Comelec had no choice but to award the nearly P18 billion contract to [Miru Systems Co. Ltd.] as it was the lone bidder for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count, which involves the lease of 110,000 automated counting machines and other provisions for the 2025 midterm polls.
This, even after Miru failed in the first round of bidding due to problems in its original documents, prompting the poll body to extend the deadline and call for another bidding.
With lack of scrutiny on Miru and its three local partners—Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corp., and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc.—concerns raised about the Korean firm are understandable. The group Democracy Watch Philippines has called on the Comelec to probe the company’s record, saying it was linked to “catastrophic failures” of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq, and Argentina, claims that Miru has denied.
Comelec chair George Garcia said the poll body’s bids and awards committee was aware of the claims about malfunctioning electoral systems and irregularities involving Miru’s operations in the DRC and Iraq, and had investigated these allegations. But he did not elaborate on the results of that investigation. And why the poll body awarded the project to Miru anyway.
These allegations recall the similar shady background attributed to Smartmatic, which had monopolized voting systems in the Philippines since it embarked on automated elections in 2010. Smartmatic’s entanglement with questionable elections in the United States and Venezuela, where the company was founded, was also raised by critics.
But more than its background, Smartmatic proved to be a disappointment with its malfunctioning machines, suspicious glitches, and other anomalies that put the integrity of the recent presidential election under a cloud of doubt.
…Such promise of a more transparent voting system is important in view of lingering doubts about the ultrafast results of the 2022 presidential elections, which gave President Marcos a landslide victory over his opponents. The mystery of the private single internet protocol address that transmitted some of the results has not yet been fully explained to the satisfaction of key election stakeholders.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/172321/comelecs-lackluster-choice
Election rigging is the first step of every illegitimately installed administration planning to plunder the nation. It’s a slippery slope that’s all downhill afterward. Bad beginnings make for bad endings, and Comelec’s choice at this time bodes badly at the very start.
Gonzalinho