The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Tuesday there was no "dagdag bawas" in the May 12 midterm polls after confusion arose when some media groups reported a higher number of running total of votes early in the day.

In a press conference, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said '' Whenever you see running total of votes with rankings based on election returns, it didn't come from us. We cannot process anything because what we have is real time data."

"There is no vote padding, vote shaving that took place," he said.

He said entities entitled to have access to election results servers receive the same election returns transmitted by each automated counting machine in every polling precinct as the Comelec.

Garcia said those with access to servers have been directed to "cleanse" and "process" the data from the election returns.

He said the Comelec will only come out with official results with rankings once the National Board of Canvassers complete canvassing of votes.

"What we canvass is the Certificates of Canvass, not the ERs from each and every precinct," said Garcia. DMS