MANILA, Philippines — About 400 vote counting machines (VCMs) had technical difficulties on Election Day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Monday.
“We understand that the perception is that there are a lot of VCMs that have malfunctioned. Right now I can tell you that the estimate is about 400 to 600 VCMs out of 85,000 have experienced issues,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a press briefing.
“It could be bigger, it could be smaller, but that is the estimate I have right now. Again, I am not going over any official report, simply reports from monitors in the field,” he added.
According to Jimenez, the VCMs that malfunctioned were the same machines used during the previous election.
Among candidates who encountered malfunctioning VCMs were Pasig City mayoral candidate Vico Sotto, and former Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Jimenez also admitted that the number of VCMs that malfunctioned this year appeared to be higher compared to the previous year.
It could be noted that in 2016, 188 VCMs out of 92,509 VCMs were replaced across the country.
Nevertheless, the Comelec assured that it has enough backup VCMs for this year’s midterm elections.
According to Comelec Director Frances Arabe, there were 9,000 contingency VCMs nationwide.
When asked if the credibility of the Comelec would be affected following the glitches on VCMs, Jimenez said: “We never said that this will be a perfect election, we never said that.”
Jimenez added: “We said that with so many machines in used, it is inevitable that some of them will experience malfunctions.” (Editor: Mike Frialde)