The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said new innovations in the May 12 polls made voting easier for many Filipinos.
COMELEC Chair George Garcia cited early voting and mall voting as major improvements.
“Many voters have benefited from innovations implemented in this election such as early voting and mall voting,” he said.
He also confirmed that 311 automated counting machines (ACMs) had minor issues, but all were fixed quickly and didn’t delay voting.
Problems included: ACM scanner (77), thermal cutter (60), thermal paper (35), ACM unit (15), ACM cover (13), screen (11), printer (10), USB (10), manual audit (8), ballots (5), operational (2), procedural (1), and smart card (1).
“In 2022, the Project Management Office would agree on this statement that during the Final Testing and Sealing, there were 2,000 ACMs that encountered problems,” said Garcia.
Elections in 15 precincts will continue Tuesday, May 13, after machines failed to read some ballots due to unclear timing marks. Ballots will be reprinted.
This, according to him, isn’t a failure of elections, noting that voting had commenced and polling centers were able to function.
COMELEC also reported a drop in election-related violence. “When it comes to election-related violence, more or less, we have 44. It’s still the lowest in the three elections we have,” he said.IMT
