Peaceful, orderly polls in Eastern Visayas – Comelec
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TACLOBAN CITY – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Eastern Visayas on Monday said that the conduct of the midterm elections in the region is orderly and peaceful.
“As of now, we can confidently say that the elections in Eastern Visayas are generally peaceful and orderly,” lawyer Ma. Corazon Montallana, Comelec assistant regional director, said in a press briefing.
All 5,670 clustered precincts in the region, Montallana said, opened at 5 a.m. as scheduled.
“All clustered polling precincts were fully functional and opened on time.”
She projected that the voter turnout in Eastern Visayas, which has more than 3 million registered voters, will hit 80 percent.
As of 2:00 p.m., about 177,926 senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and pregnant women had cast their votes in the region.
These priority groups were given an early voting window from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. although they were still allowed to vote during regular hours.
Montallana also reported no major issues with the vote-counting machines (VCMs), although some of them encountered minor problems.
“The scanners of some VCMs malfunctioned due to dirt accumulation from the large volume of ballots,” she explained.
“This issue wasn’t observed during the final testing and sealing because only a few test ballots were used then,” she added.
Even House Speaker Martin Romualdez encountered the glitch when his ballot was rejected three times at his polling precinct in Tacloban City.
Romualdez, who is seeking his third and final term as representative of Leyte’s 1st district, downplayed the incident, saying he was eventually able to feed his ballot successfully.
Montallana said no incidents of violence or harassment had been reported.
The Comelec and the Philippine National Police received reports of alleged vote buying in the region although these were not confirmed due to absence of complainants and witnesses.
