By Neah Mangawang
Contributor
(Eagle News) — The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said that asking voters to leave their ballots in the precinct in case vote counting machines (VCM) fail to operate was part of the poll body’s protocol and was not a scheme to defraud voters.
In a press briefing on Monday, May 9, COMELEC Commissioner George Garcia told reporters that voters should not be confused and should not jump into conclusion that there would be electoral cheating when they are asked to leave their ballots for feeding into the VCMs at a later time. He explained that as soon as a working VCM has been brought to replace the broken ones, all the ballots left to the precinct will be mass fed to the machine in front of political parties’ representatives, citizens’ arm, and watchers.
“Huwag na magtaka o huwag sabihing daan para makapandaya. Kasama sa protocol. Lahat makakaboto kahit wala yung machine,” Garcia said.
The poll official said it would be impractical to halt the voting process while waiting for a working VCM to arrive. And while the receipts will not be given to the voters, he assured that the same will be put in the box in the presence of political parties’ representatives and watchers.
As for the alleged discrepancy in vote receipts, Garcia said the public should not easily believe in rumors unless substantiated by concrete evidence.
As of 12 noon, 143 VCMs were reported defective. But the COMELEC said these were immediately replaced with contingency VCMs distributed in the various provinces.
A number of voters who had encountered problems with defective VCMs in their respective polling precincts took to social media to air their doubts and frustrations in today’s election. But COMELEC Chairperson Saidamen Pangarungan maintained that these problems were isolated and not enough to discredit the polls.
Meanwhile, COMELEC Commissioner Aimee Ferolino said that the Citizens’ Complaints Center would remain open and would continuously receive videos and photos from voters all over the country.
She said that they would still need verified complaints and affidavits to support the photos and videos because they cannot act just based on the submitted photos and videos alone.
There are also legal volunteers on the field to help those needing assistance in drafting the complaints. The Philippine National Police (PNP) was also instructed to act on complaints, particularly those regarding vote buying or vote selling.
The COMELEC can be reached through their facebook page Task Force Kontra Bigay.
(Eagle News Service)