Testing and sealing of VCMs to end Saturday, May 7, 2022, says Comelec commissioner Garcia
(Eagle News) – At least 355 vote counting machines have been found to have some problems as the Commission on Elections finished the distribution of these machines as well as the ballots to be used in the national and local elections on Monday, May 9.
Comelec commissioner George Garcia said that in the course of the testing and sealing of the VCMs, there were 355 found to have problems. The testing and sealing of machines started on May 2 and is supposed to end today, Saturday, May 7.
-Only small percentage of VCMs defective, says Comelec-
Garcia, however, said that the number of defective VCMs only constitute a small percentage of the total number of 106,000 VCMs to be used in the May 9 elections.
“So far po sa napakadami na nating na-test po, nakaka-355 po tayo na mga medyo may problema na mga vote-counting machines. Subalit ito po ay napakaliit na porsiyento kumpara doon sa bilang ng maayos na maayos na mga vote-counting machines,” Garcia said in a Laging Handa press briefing.
He said that the 355 VCMs found to have “problems” were brought to their repair hubs. As of Friday, May 6, around 200 have already been repaired.
Hopefully, he said, that when the final testing is done today, Saturday, there would not be that many defective VCMs to be found.
-VCMs already old but still effective- Garcia-
Garcia explained that the vote-counting machines to be used on May 9 were already a bit old as they had been used in the previous automated elections.
But he assured that these are still effective.
“Tatandaan po natin, iyong mga makinang ito, medyo matatandang makina na rin po ito dahil ilang beses na po natin nagamit sa ilang election pero effective pa rin po at efficient iyong mga makinang ito,” he said.
The Comelec official said that 100 percent of the VCMs, its batteries, and the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) laptops have already been distributed as of Friday, May 6.
All the ballots to be used for voting on May 9 have also already been completely distributed.
“So technically po, lahat po halos ay na-distribute na at nakahanda na para sa Lunes, na araw ng eleksiyon,” he said.
-6 am to 7 pm voting on May 9-
Voting on May 9 will start at 6 a.m. and end at 7 p.m.
The next Philippine president and vice-president will be determined in the May 9 polls, as well as the 12 senators, and 316 members of the House of Representatives.
Also up for grabs are 81 seats for governor and vice governor, and 782 seats to provincial boards in provinces, 146 city mayoralty and vice-mayoralty seats, and 1,650 seats to city councils in all cities, 1,488 municipal mayors and vice mayors, and 11,908 seats to municipal councils in all municipalities.
This is the first national and local elections in the country to be held amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Eagle News Service)