Exclusive | Could Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix be probed for meddling in Philippine election?
The firm’s parent company claimed on its website it had worked for a male candidate – believed to be President Rodrigo Duterte – in the 2016 election, perhaps committing the crime of ‘foreign intervention’
Cambridge Analytica’s suspended CEO Alexander Nix could be investigated for meddling in the Philippines’ 2016 presidential election, according to the country’s former polls chief.
Christian Monsod, who once chaired the Commission on Elections said that there were sufficient grounds in an investigative report to Comelect “to conduct a preliminary investigation on whether Strategic Communica–tions Laboratories, the parent company] violated Section 81, including the accountability of any candidate or political party as principal, accomplice or accessory to the crime.”
“SCL used the cross-cutting issue of crime to rebrand the client as a strong, no-nonsense man of action, who would appeal to the true values of the voters,” the SCL post claimed, although it has since been removed from the website.
Monsod was referring to Section 81 of the Omnibus Election Code which makes the “intervention of foreigners” a crime punishable with up to 12 years in jail. The section states that is unlawful for foreigners to aid any candidate or political party, directly or indirectly, or to take part in or influence an election.
I believe that there are sufficient grounds in your investigative report for the Comelec to conduct a preliminary investigation
Monsod said the probe could focus on whether SCL and Nix, on the one hand, and Nix’s local “principal, accomplice or accessory to the crime” on the other hand, also violated Section 96 of the Code, which bars any Filipino and local political party from soliciting or receiving “any contribution from a foreigner to influence the results of any election”.