Comelec skeds mock polls to test election machines

CEBU, Philippines - A mock election will be conducted to allay fears of election failure in the May 2010 national elections, an official of the Commission on Election-7 said yesterday.

Comelec regional attorney and provincial supervisor Lionel Castillano said that early next year, eight areas — two from the National Capital Region, two from Luzon, two from the Visayas and another two from Mindanao — will undergo dry-run elections to test the polling machines.

Earlier, Provincial Board Member Victor Maambong expressed fears of failure of elections due to the seemingly lack of test run of the machines provided by Smartmatic, the company tasked to automate the next elections.

Maambong said that Smartmatic has yet to test whether the machines can read ballots accidentally soiled or wet by hands during the election.

Castillano, however, said that Smartmatic and the Comelec have still enough time to test the machines, and if they won’t work on dirtied ballots or on other reasons, they will go back to manual.

“Og dili mo-work, nganong ipugos man? We go back to manual. Naa bitaw tay balota. Mao nay nakanindot, we could always switch to manual if it happens di mo-work ang machine,” Castillano said.

Castillano said the Comelec central office has also decided to extend starting today up to October 31 the registration by one hour to give more time to those who have not registered.

Although he could not say how many people have yet to register, Castillano said they have already gone from places to places like schools and remote barangays for the off-site registrations.

He said the deadline for registration is still on October 31 and that the Comelec will then finalize the official list of voters and print ballots. As of July, at least 2.1 million people have already registered in Cebu, including the cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu.

Meanwhile, the filing of certificates of candidacy has been set for November 20 to 30.

In Cebu City, north district Comelec officer Marchel Sarno said a high number of youth and first-time voters have registered for the May elections.

Sarno said that this is due to the information campaign and the off-site registrations they had conducted at different universities in Cebu.

But he said they do not have statistics as to how many were able to register.

“Its all speculations but we are targeting 5-10 percent of the registered number of voters in North District,” Sarno said.

He said that they are targeting 225,000 to 230,000 registered voters in the district.

As the deadline of the registrations draws near, Sarno said the number of those wanted to register increases everyday.

The election officer added that they have put up a special fast lane for the disabled and senior citizens to give them a lesser burden while registering. — Liv G. Campo and Johanna T. Natavio/LPM   (FREEMAN NEWS)