Comelec turns into board of canvassers

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) en banc on Monday convened as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the canvassing of the senatorial and party-list votes.

The NBOC convened at 4 p.m., ahead of the scheduled closing of polling precincts nationwide.

The precincts were set to close at 5 p.m. The Comelec, however, allowed a one-hour extension for polling precincts that started late due to glitches in the vote counting machines.

Five of the seven members of the Comelec en banc were present when the NBOC was convened. They were Chair Andres Bautista and Commissioners Arthur Lim, Rowena Guanzon, Luie Tito Guia and Sheriff Abbas.

They will lead in the canvassing and subsequent proclamation of the winning senators and party-list groups.

With the representatives of political parties and the lawyers of candidates as witnesses, the initialization report, which showed that all the candidates got zero votes, was shown.

The NBOC suspended the canvassing after it had not received transmitted votes. It will reconvene at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.  Tina G. Santos