WHILE preparing for the pilot testing of an automated Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in Dasmariñas City in Cavite and in the sixth district of Quezon City, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it cannot guarantee that the poll exercise on October 30 will be seamless.
In a press briefing during the mock polls for the automated BSKE in Dasmariñas City, Comelec chairman George Garcia admitted that they cannot assure the voters in the involved clustered precincts that there won’t be any glitches in the vote counting machines (VCMs).
“We cannot make such guarantees since these machines are already old. We cannot deny that. These (glitches) will inevitably happen,” said Garcia.
He said this is the reason why they have prepared back up units for the BSKE. “We will employ 1 is to 1. Each machine will have a contingency machine assigned,” he said.
He noted how the Comelec has already declared the 97,000 VCM units used since the 2016 polls as already “unusable” after the 2022 elections.
For the October 30 BSKE automated election system (AES) pilot testing in two barangays in Dasmariñas City, Cavite, and in one barangay in Quezon City, Garcia said they have picked out the best conditioned 1,000 VCM units.
The AES will be piloted during the BSKE in Barangays Zone II Poblacion and Paliparan III in Dasmariñas City and in Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City.
“We purposely selected 1,000 units that remain usable for them to be used in the BSKE. These 1,000 have been certified by the Technical Evaluation Committee as still being usable,” said Garcia.
He said the mock polls conducted yesterday were meant to help the poll body prepare for the problems that may emerge come Election Day.
“We want to test the process. What adjustments should the Comelec adopt and apply,” said Garcia.
The Comelec on Tuesday conducted mock elections in Pintong Gubat Elementary School, Brgy. Paliparan III; Paliparan Elemetary School, Brgy. Paliparan III; and Dasmariñas Elementary School, P. Campos Avenue, Brgy. Zone II in Dasmariñas City, Cavite.
