Comelec logo and VCM, INQUIRER GRAPHICS
LUCENA CITY鈥撯�揇espite technical glitches in some vote-counting machines, the national and local elections in Quezon province started peacefully on May 9.
鈥淭here were no untoward incidents that affected the peaceful conduct of the election in the province,鈥� Colonel Joel Villanueva, Quezon police director, said citing the latest reports from the Provincial Election Monitoring Action Center (Pemac) based in Camp Nakar as of 10:30 a.m.
He added: 鈥淲e hope that it remains a peaceful election.鈥�
Lawyer Allan Enriquez, Quezon election supervisor, said the province鈥檚 two cities and 39 municipalities have 2,443 clustered precincts in 1,126 voting centers.
The province has 1,424,023 registered voters in the 2022 elections.
鈥淭here were reports of some VCM malfunctions but they were immediately addressed by poll officials and technicians,鈥� Enriquez said in a phone interview.
He said standby units would replace some of the still-malfunctioning VCMs.
鈥淭he voters can still vote by filling up their ballots,鈥� Enriquez said.
He explained that the filled-up ballots would be temporarily placed by poll officials in a box, to be witnessed by party watchers and the accredited citizens鈥� arms.
Once the counting of votes from the other precincts is finished, the functioning VCMs would be transferred to other precincts with defective machines for the counting of the collected ballots, the Comelec further explained.
Enriquez described the malfunctioning VMCs as 鈥渙ld and antiquated.鈥�