DESPITE the sporadic failure of vote counting machines in more than 100 precincts around the country, the Commission on Elections said voting went as planned Monday.
“Overall, we believe the elections went smoothly,” said Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista at a press conference after the polls closed in most precincts at 5 p.m.
“There were of course problems encountered… but we are solution-oriented,” Bautista added.
The Comelec chairman said that only 150 VCMs or 0.16 percent of the 92,509 machines failed and needed to be replaced this year. This compared with 171 out of 77,829 machines in 2013, and 205 out of 76,347 VCMs in 2010.
Bautista said the most common problems were VCMs that rejected ballots or failed to print out voter receipts.
There are also reports from Cordova, Cebu that the Comelec had deployed the wrong ballots.
“There were mis-deliveries but [these were] corrected in time,” Bautista said,
adding that no precincts declared a failure of elections.
But Lente, a poll watchdog, said the same election violations and irregularities that plagued previous polls were present on Monday.
In a statement, Lente said it monitored several incidents of vote buying, unlawful electioneering and the ban on campaigning on Election Day.
The group also expressed alarm at the disenfranchisement of voters and delays in voting due to glitches in the VCMs.
“In a number of polling places, the VCMs stalled in the middle of the process. In Lupang Pangako Elementary School in Payatas, for example, the VCM was reported to have malfunctioned since 8 a.m.,” Lente said.
Lente also reported that the increase in number of missing names on the voter’s list was worrisome as it pointed to voter disenfranchisement.
“Lente also observed several cases of unlawful entry of AFP, PNP and barangay officials. The most unsettling trend, however, has been the increase in the number of reports involving violence and election-related deaths,” the poll watchdog stated.
The Comelec en banc convened its canvassing process at 3:30 p.m. Monday, but this was immediately discontinued as they had yet to receive any voting results from the provincial board of canvassers.
Bautista said the canvassing of votes would resume Tuesday at 11 a.m., adding that accuracy, and not speed, was the priority.
He also assured the public that data would be available by Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
But he said the Comelec wanted to discourage trending based on partial data.
‘We are not statisticians. Our job is to count the votes right,” he said. “You make your own analysis as results are coming out through our transparency server.”
Bautista said they might proclaim the 12 winning senatorial candidates in a week.
Early frontrunners in the unofficial count expressed concern over the defective VCMs, saying they offered the opportunity for cheating.
Amor Amorado, a lawyer for vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said replacement machines for defective ones could be pre-programmed for cheating.
Arriving in Manila after he cast his vote in Batac, Ilocos Norte, Marcos went straight to his campaign headquarters along Edsa in Mandaluyong City to oversee the preparations being made by monitoring center located at the building’s fourth floor.
Duterte’s party spokeswoman, Paola Alvarez, said the campaign team was bothered by reports of VCM failures from different parts of the country, which delayed the voting process.
Television reports showed long lines, mostly outside schools that served as voting centers.
In Metro Manila, VCMs malfunctioned in 23 polling precincts in Quezon City.
In Luzon, several provinces reported VCM glitches that delayed voting. In some instances, lines grew longer as the precincts awaited the arrival of replacement machines.
In some precincts, voters filled out their ballots and left them in a folder with the board of election inspectors, while others chose to wait for a replacement VCM before casting their votes.
The administration candidate for vice president, Leni Robredo, had to wait in line for two hours at the Tabuco Central School in Naga City, while the precinct awaited a replacement VCM.
Voters in several precincts in Mindanao also waited for hours for defective machines to be replaced.
The church-based election watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting on Monday said it has received numerous instances of election-related violence and violations of election laws from its volunteers across the country.
It also said it pulled out its volunteers in Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City for their safety.
The PPCRV, an election watchdog and the citizen arm of the Comelec, also reported spotting some VCMs in rooms at the Novotel in Araneta Center, where the Comelec’s technology provider, Smartmatic, were billeted.
But Bautista, who went to the hotel after receiving the reports, said he found nothing.
The campaign team of the Liberal Party also criticized the PPCRV for “spreading baseless and unsubstantiated rumors.” With Joel E. Zurbano, Vito Barcelo, John Paolo Bencito, Jun David, AFP