Atty. Jose Nick Mendros, acting Regional Election
Director of the Commission on Election (COMELEC) in Eastern Visayas assured
that there would be no failure of local and national elections on May
despite uncertainty when the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines
arrive in Region 8. He bared this information during an interview in his
office on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
Mendros said even if PCOS machines would not arrive to
Region 8 from its COMELEC Central Office or even if there would be a scenario
that some of these machines would not operate, the local and national
election in this region would be operated manually.
He said although that the automated machines would reduce
hassle on official ballots’ manual counting, eliminate election
cheating liked ballot-switching, among others, the elections would fall
on its schedule as the Constitution mandated it.
Asked how prepared are they for the automated elections,
Mendros said that he does not know when the PCOS units arrive in this
region. He said the unit delivery would depend on the COMELEC national
office.
The regional director also said in Eastern Visayas there
are 5,523 total clustered precincts. This number would correspond with
the total number also of the PCOS machines. The region has 2,432,370 total
voters who would be inform on what to do on its official ballot which
would be shaded properly and correspondingly with the name of the local
and national candidates.
Mendros also said that Ormoc City is lucky because it
is the warehouse of the PCOS units of the Smartmatic Corp.
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