Fast count stuns nation

   

MANILA, Philippines—Shell-shocked.

Winners and losers did not know what hit them as a barrage of election tallies—first a trickle, then a torrent—confronted them with the reality that the poisoned political environment had nothing to do with Monday’s automated elections, officials said Tuesday.

“It was faster than you can say Garci,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Jose Melo, alluding to disgraced former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who was accused of colluding with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rig the 2004 presidential election, a charge she denies.

The first results came from satellite transmissions—the VSATs and BGANs—from mountainous regions in northern Luzon where there were no regular cell phone sites and the voting populations were small.

via INQUIRER.net.

AND: PPCRV update for presidential, VP, senatorial posts