PRACTICALITY VS. COMPLIANCE. Although all 12 senators have been proclaimed, questions were raised about the early proclamation of the top six. Photo by Roy Lagarde for Rappler.

THE PREMATURE proclamation for the senatorial elections made by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc was declared “null and void” by Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente).

Lente’s declaration was made in response to the Comelec’s proclamation of six winning senatorial candidates after canvassing only 72 of 304 certificates of canvass (COC).

The partial results has shown that the first six winning candidates were Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Nancy Binay and Sonny Angara.

The press release by Lente declared the proclamation “repugnant to law,” especially as it violates Section 20 of Republic Act 9369. The section provides that the COC “shall only be produced upon completion of the canvass.”

“Necessarily, a 100% transmission of the votes must take place before any candidate may be proclaimed as winner,” the brief asserted.

However, the brief also admits that the early proclamation can be seen as practical, especially as the remaining uncounted votes are numerically incapable of affecting the results for the six winning candidates.

In response to this, the brief also asserts that “the balance can never tip in favor of practicality when set against compliance.”

Management junior Anna Regalado agrees with Lente’s sentiments, arguing that early proclamations are unnecessary given that there are still votes that have to be counted.

“I just find it disconcerting that announcements are made even as results are still coming in. Even if it is mathematically impossible for [the six candidates] to lose, it is still better to wait for results to be finalized,” she argued. “Otherwise, what’s the point of the votes that are not even counted yet?”