The Diocesan Electoral Board of the Diocese of Dumaguete has noted several technical errors in some Vote Counting Machines used in Monday’s elections.
The DEB is the citizen’s arm officially recognized by the Commission on Elections in Negros Oriental and its partner in the smooth and orderly conduct of local and national elections in province.
Based on the reports sent to the DEB command center at the Marian Priests’ Center, Cathedral Compound, this city, some of the technical errors noted today range from paper jams to malfunctioning VCMs.
One of the earliest report of malfunctioning VCM incident was at 6:01 a.m. at Clustered Precinct 17 at Boloc-Boloc Elementary School, Sibulan town.
Electoral Board Chair Anabelle Yangco said that their VCM won’t read the ballots inserted by the voters.
“Hindi siya bumasa (ng balota). Nag-misread. Tumawag kami sa COMELEC office and then pinalitan ang VCM namin. (It won’t read the ballots. We called the COMELEC office and they replaced our VCM),” Yangco explained.
This technical glitch hampered the election process in the said precinct. Yangco disclosed they had to wait for almost two hours before voting process went back smoothly. Voting process normalized at 7:30 a.m.
This also resulted to a long queue of voters waiting for their turn to vote.
The same incident was also reported at 11:06 a.m. in Clustered Precinct Number 12 in Barangay Ilaya, Tayasan town. Technicians re-started the machine but after some attempts, they called for a replacement of VCM.
Aside from this, there were also reports of bogged down VCMs.
The earliest incident happened at 7:30 a.m. at precinct number 249250, Junob Elementary School, Dumaguete City. Technicians had to restart the VCM and the VCM reset to normal operations.
Similar incidents also happened at 10:19 a.m. in Doldol Day Care Center which served as a voting center in one village in Bacong, Precinct number 37 in Obogon Elementary School, Tanjay City at 10:58 a.m. The VCMs in the said precinct were also replaced by the COMELEC.
In Apo Island off the coast of the municipality of Dauin, the VCM in clustered precinct 0017A, 0017B, 0018B was reported to bog down three times. The first incident was reported at 11:00 a,m., followed by another at 12:23 p.m. and 12:50 p.m.
The electoral board had to re-start the machine three times before it can function normally.
On the other hand, incidents of paper jam were recorded in some clustered precincts in Dumaguete City, Sta. Catalina, Sibulan, Tayasan, and Valencia towns.
DEB Lead Convener Msgr. Julius Heruela went to observe the voting process in some voting centers including some health centers, day care centers, and barangay halls at 12 noon today.
“Tong mga problema kanina nag-malfunction na VCM makita nato ang, point dito ay not properly place[d] ang VCM mo na siya. Second of course, if daghan ang moaging ballots mo-init gyud na. Kinahanglan papahuwayon (The problem on malfunctioning VCMs occur probably because it was not put in place properly. Second, VCMs will overheat if we put too many ballots. It needs time to cool down),” Msgr. Heruela explained.
Meanwhile, a report from the Philippine National Police – Provincial Election Monitoring Action Center also revealed that a total of 15 malfunctioning VCMs were recorded as of 3:58 p.m.
The report cited three in Bayawan City, one in Dumaguete City, three in Guihulngan City, one in La Libertad, Manjuyod, and Siaton, two in Sibulan, one in Sta Catalina, Tayasan, and Zamboanguita.
Ten VCMs were replaced while five VCMs were repaired and are now both operational.
Apart from the technical errors reported in the DEB command center, Monsignor Heruela noted there are no other major issues encountered during the conduct of elections citing that usual problem of voters looking for their precinct numbers were managed by the volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting who assisted by guiding voters to their polling precincts through the Voters Assistance Desk established in polling centers. (ral/PIA7-NegOr)
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