As millions of Filipinos cast their votes for national and local positions, various areas across the country reported poll-related incidents in the May 12 mid-term elections.
In Datu Odin Sinsuat, a town in Maguindanao del Norte, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said the poll body received reports of intimidation, where individuals attempted to block the locals from voting.
Garcia said the poll body alerted the military and the police, which immediately responded to the situation.
Meanwhile, in Abra, Garcia said, two poll watchers were removed from a polling precinct after they were caught assisting a senior citizen in shading her ballot — an election offense that is punishable by up to six years in prison.
He said local Comelec officials already listed the identities of the poll watchers for the subsequent filing of charges.
“At least wala naman nagkakaputukan. Wala naman nagkakaroon ng violence talaga, pero ‘yung pagpigil, more on intimidation, at hindi dapat nagkakaroon ng ganyang intimidation,” he said.
Vote-buying reports were minimal, which Garcia credited to the Comelec’s order to the police to arrest suspects without warrant if caught engaging in vote-buying.
As of Monday afternoon, Garcia also said there were no “major technical issues” during the conduct of elections, based on discussion of their regional directors.
However, poll watchdog Kontra Daya said that as of 10:30 a.m., 42 percent of their verified complaints were about faulty Automated Counting Machines (ACMs), causing at least an hour of delayed voting process.
There were also reports that some ballots got stuck in ACMs, and about questionable overvoting and rejected ballots.
Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also experienced a technical glitch, requiring him to feed his ballot into the ACM twice with the assistance of a Comelec personnel at a polling precinct in Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School, Batac City, Ilocos Norte.
Kontra Daya also said 22 percent of their verified complaint were about red-tagging, while 13 percent cited the Board of Electoral Inspectors (BEI) who did not follow right election process.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) also confirmed that technical glitches and power supply issues greeted the first few hours of the elections in some areas in the country, but the voting was generally going well.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said the technical glitches and power interruptions were reported in some parts of Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Cordillera Administrative Region.
The power interruptions, according to Fajardo, were caused by electric transmission issues but these were resolved in some areas like the voting center in Pantangan National High School in Nueva Ecija. (Joseph Pedrajas, Aaron Recuenco, Argyll Geducos)
