Comelec ‘99.99999 percent prepared,’ says Brillantes

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes: 99.99999 percent prepared. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Prepared 99.99999 percent.

Ready to oversee the country’s second automated polling, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) dispensed on the eve of the midterm balloting reminders to the millions of voters expected to cast their ballots.

Filipino voters were advised to make a list of the candidates of their choice before proceeding to their respective precincts to avoid long queues that had attended the first automated elections in 2010.

Once at their assigned precinct, voters should use the ballot secrecy folders, ensure that ovals are fully shaded, that they do not “overvote” and do not “force feed” the ballots into the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to avoid paper jams that might lead to malfunctioning.

“We are prepared. We are actually, I would say, 99.99999 percent prepared,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said Sunday.

Some 233,000 public school teachers are serving as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) to help the Comelec oversee an orderly and peaceful automated balloting.

Almost 1,000 generator sets have already been fielded by the Comelec to various municipalities, with priority given to Mindanao in anticipation of possible power outages in some of its regions. The PCOS machines are also equipped with external batteries that can last up to 12 hours.

Brillantes advised voters to come to the polling precincts with a list of the candidates they will be voting for “in order to lessen the time consumed inside polling precincts and ease the long lines.”

A total of 52,014,648 registered voters are expected to proceed to the 77,829 clustered precincts in 36,772 voting centers across the country starting at 7 a.m. today.

Comelec records show that 18,053 posts are being contested, including 12 Senate seats, 233 Congress slots, 58 party-list positions, 80 provincial governor slots, 766 provincial board member posts and 143 city mayor positions. A total of 33 senatorial candidates are vying for the crucial 12 Senate seats.

Polling precincts will close after 12 hours—at 7 p.m.

Random manual audit

“[But] if at 7 p.m. there are still voters within 30 meters in front of the polling place who have yet to cast their votes, voting shall continue but only to allow said voters to cast their votes without interruption,” Brillantes said.

After voting hours have officially ended, the PCOS machines will begin to print out the election returns containing the results of the ballots cast in the clustered precinct and will be immediately transmitted to the Comelec central server, the Municipal Board of Canvassers and to the Provincial Board of Canvassers.

Around this time, the random manual audit will also be commenced in 234 polling precincts.

Brillantes said the Comelec en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, will convene at 5 p.m. on Monday.

“By midnight, we may see a trend already. Maybe we will know who is at numbers one, two, three and four after we receive the results from all over the country,” the Comelec chief noted.

He also added that the first eight winning senators can be proclaimed within 48 hours but this will depend on the discrepancy of votes between candidates.