Machine glitches delay official proclamation of Leyte winners

TACLOBAN CITY, May 11 (PNA) -– Glitches in vote counting machines (VCMs) and consolidation canvassing system (CCS) had caused the delay in the proclamation of some winners in Leyte, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) confirmed.

Leyte provincial elections supervisor Corazon Montallana said the votes in other areas are critical for the provincial board of canvassers to proclaim some winners in the May 9 polls.

“As of Tuesday night, we are only 90 percent done with our canvassing since other areas could not transmit results to us,” Montallana said.

In the towns of Dulag and Albuera, all precincts failed to send results to the municipal board of canvassers as VCMs failed to establish connectivity to the CCS.

As a result, no single candidate in these towns was proclaimed as winner by the local board of canvassers, affecting the counting of votes for provincial board members and members of the House of Representatives.

For instance, in the 2nd legislative district, the provincial board of canvassers halted the proclamation of Henry Ong as winner in the congressional race despite his 13,000 votes lead in the Comelec transparency server since votes in Dulag town, which has 27,000 registered voters, are not yet counted by canvassers.

“We have sent contingency CCS machines to Dulag and Albuera, but it did not work as well. Our technicians later found out that SD cards are defective. We sent it to Cebu for reconfiguration and we expect them to send it back to us anytime this week,” Montallana said.

Aside from Dulag and Albuera, defective VCMs and SD cards were reported in some precincts in San Miguel, Baybay City, Ormoc City, Merida, Bato,Tabango, and Villab according to the provincial election officer.

Some of these areas failed to transmit results to the provincial board of canvassers as of late Tuesday night.

On Tuesday night, the Leyte provincial board canvassers have already declared Governor Dominic Petilla, Vice Governor Carlo Loreto, 1st district board members Gina Merilo and Bob Abellanosa, and 2nd district board member Nico Vilalsin. All officials are re-electionists.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the first set of officials proclaimed winners by the provincial canvassers were Yedda Romualdez as representative of Leyte’s 1st district and Trinidad Apostol as 2nd district board member.

The board has not yet declared any winners from the third, fourth and fifth legislative districts of Leyte province as of 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. (PNA)

FFC/SARWELL Q. MENIANO