PH set for midterms elections as Comelec warns against vote-buying
Credit to Author: WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT| Date: Sun, 12 May 2019 09:18:45 +0000
IT’s all systems go for Monday’s national and local elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Sunday, amid reports of vote-buying and -selling.
Up for grabs in Monday’s national and local elections are 18,879 positions, including 12 for senator; 60 seats for party-list groups; 243 for district congressman; 81 each for governor and vice-governor; 780 provincial board members; 1,634 each for mayor and vice mayor; and 13,544 members of city and municipal councils.
Director Frances Arabe of the Comelec’s Education and Information Division (EID) said that except for minor details everything was ready from voting information to delivery of ballots and counting machines, among others, to ensure that the electoral process would proceed smoothly.
“As far as the (vote counting) machines and official ballots are concerned, everything has been deployed 100 percent,” Arabe said, even as he admitted that final sealing and testing of vote counting machines (VCMs) were still ongoing in some areas to determine if the ballots would be read accurately and would tally with the corresponding voter’s receipt.
She assured though that the Comelec has a contingency measure for defective machines and secure digital (SD) cards.
Comelec Director Teopisto Elnas Jr. deputy director, Project Management Office (PMO), said that 92,000 VCMs and 63 million ballots have been distributed across the country.
The Comelec, Elnas added, would be using 85,000 VCMs on the day of the elections, while the remaining 7,000 would be on standby as a contingency measure in the event that some of the machines would malfunction or bog down.
But Arabe said that the biggest challenge to the Comelec in this election was the increasing number of complaints of vote-buying and vote-selling which, she admitted, was hard to prosecute.
It is further exacerbated, she added, by the complainants or witnesses’ loss of interest and non-appearance in court as the cases progresses, which eventually would lead to the dismissal of the complaint.
Based on Comelec records, there are a total of 61,843,771 registered voters throughout the country’s 17 regions, which include 1,113285 overseas registered voters.
Region 4-A or the Calabarzon area has the biggest number of registered voters at 8,674,351, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, 7,074,603; Region 3 or Central Luzon, 6,829,661; Region 7 or Central Visayas, 4,946,354; and Region 6 or Western Visayas, 4808,839.
Other vote-rich regions are Region 5 or Bicol, 3,647,722; Region 1 or Ilocos, 3,331,404; Region 8 or Eastern Visayas, 3,051,649; Region 11 or Southern Mindanao, 3,026,393; and Region Region 10 or Northern Mindanao, 2,855,792.
Under Comelec Resolution 10460, all registered voters whose names appear in the election day computerized voter list (EDCVL) may vote in the 2019 national and local elections.
Arabe, at the same time reminded registered voters to come early to the polling places on May 13 to avoid long lines and to prepare a list of candidates they would vote for to make voting or shading of ballot easier and faster.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said that contingency measures were also in place in case of power outage on Election Day, which would include standby generator sets in polling areas.
Jimenez said the VCM has also a standby battery that may last up to 14 hours, which means that the machines would continue to function during a power outage.
Jimenez said that Comelec regional offices also coordinated with power distributors in their respective areas to ensure a steady supply of power during the elections.
Voting hours is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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