Several issues cause minor interruptions of polls in NegOcc

Several issues, albeit minor, caused some interruptions on the conduct of the elections yesterday for the whole Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City.

Based on information forwarded by the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office’s (NOCPPO) Provincial Election Monitoring Center (PEMC), a total of 43 defective vote counting machines (VCMs) were recorded in various parts of the province.

In Sagay City, six VCMs were reported to have malfunctioned, along with two misreadings.

The problems, however, were immediately fixed, and as of PEMC’s 7:00 p.m. report, one of the VCMs in Sagay City was undergoing troubleshooting.

The cities of Bago, Escalante, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, and La Carlota also reported malfunctioning VCMs, although they too were later either fixed or replaced with the reserve VCMs.

Fifteen power interruptions were also reported in Negros Occidental, although power was restored within a few minutes in some of the affected areas.

In Bacolod City, several VCMs were also reported to have encountered problems which caused long queues among the voters.

Atty. Revo Sorbito, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Bacolod City elections officer, did not provide the exact number of VCMs in the city that malfunctioned.

Sorbito blamed the hot climate conditions yesterday, pointing out that the VCMs need cooler environments just like computers.

Aside from issues with the VCMs, there were also numerous complaints of voters unable to find their names on the list.

Some of the voters who were unable to find their names immediately went to the Comelec-Bacolod office along San Juan Street, and it was later determined that some of the voters were deactivated.

The Comelec removes a voter from the list if the person fails to participate in two elections, including the barangay polls.

However, despite the unforgiving heat and the technical issues which hounded the elections in the city and the province, the people still exercised cooler heads and patiently waited for their turn at the polling precincts.

Meanwhile, compared to other areas in the country, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office spokesperson Lt. Abegael Donasco said they have not recorded any major incidents which could affect the elections in the province.

She further added that everything went smoothly and the situation in the province was generally peaceful.

(Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga photo) Despite the chaotic scenes and long queues at the Bacolod City National High School (BCNHS) and at the Rodolfo A. Medel Sr. Elementary School (RAMSES), cooler heads still prevailed and voters patiently waited for their turn.

(Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga photo) Several issues caused minor interruptions on the conduct of the elections yesterday for the whole Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City.