MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 4) Despite incidents of ballot box snatching in Monday’s automated elections at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the polls were “generally very, very peaceful,” Commission on Elections chairman Jose Melo said.

Melo made this assessment as he identified the areas where ballot box snatching had occurred.

Senator Richard Gordon, who has been pushing automated elections, called the ARMM exercise a “smashing success.”

The senator, who said he made the rounds of precincts in Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan provinces, said, “Overall, what I saw, teachers were very happy and the public was generally excited [to use the machines].”

Melo said unidentified armed men in the villages of Tumahubong and Baiwas in municipality of Sumisip, Basilan stole the ballot boxes before polling centers could open here.

He said this meant that a total of 1,896 voters had failed to cast their ballots.

He said that the Comelec was considering declaring a failure of elections and holding special elections in these areas but would have to see whether the overall results would be affected before doing so.

Ballot boxes were also taken from the village of Sapa, municipality of Bayang in Lanao del Sur, and from the municipality of Balindong, Lanao del Sur where a commotion left a precinct chairman injured.

Ballot box snatching was also reported in Barira and Togaig in Shariff Kabunsuan before polls started but the boxes were recovered.

Meanwhile, elections in the municipality of Akbar, also in Basilan, were delayed after public school teachers in 18 precincts in nine villages refused to serve as Board of Election Inspectors following a shootout in the area, Melo said.

Instead, the Comelec appointed members of the Philippine National Police and civilian volunteers to act as BEIs.

There have been no reports of failure of elections in the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao, Melo said.

Earlier on Monday, Melo said he was confident that the “innovativeness” of the polls would entice voters to participate.

Elections in the 1,901 voting centers in ARMM “opened on time,” Melo said.

Gordon said the automation of the voting process proves the Philippines “can have honest and peaceful elections.”

He said the Comelec would be able to solve the technical glitches that happened in some precincts, as he urged the poll body to push through with plans for a biometric identification system to fully automate the 2010 national polls.

“What is an investment of billions [of pesos] if people will have closure?” Gordon said.