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Many Filipinos demanded that the Fee on Elections (Comelec) prolong voting hours after widespread experiences of voters ready in line up for hours on election day because of malfunctioning vote-counting machines throughout polling stations within the Philippines. The sentiment was widespread sufficient to make #ExtendVotingHoursPH a high trending matter on Twitter this night.
Underneath Comelec pointers, voting was meant to start right now at 6am and finish at 7pm. Solely voters inside 30 meters of polling stations have been imagined to be allowed to vote after the 7pm cutoff.
But on Twitter, many Filipinos shared their experiences of ready so long as 12 hours because of a scarcity of working vote-counting machines, with no updates from Comelec as of 9:30 pm.
One voter mentioned there have been no working machines of their precinct in any respect from 6am to 7pm, giving no person the chance to vote beneath Comelec’s time pointers.
Earlier, Comelec urged that voters experiencing defective machines of their precincts depart their ballots with electoral board members, who would feed the ballots into the machines of their absence — waiving their proper to view the voting receipt that will affirm their votes.
This clearly didn’t sit nicely with lots of these voters, who argued that this would go away their ballots susceptible to tampering and insisted on ready till working machines had arrived to forged their ballots.
ABS-CBN information anchor Karen Davila questioned a Comelec commissioner on what circumstances would drive the poll-regulating physique to declare an extension of voting hours after the lengthy delays.
“What wouldn’t it take for the Comelec en banc to resolve to increase voting hours?” Davila requested Commissioner George Garcia throughout a stay interview in Filipino. “(Individuals) are solely asking for 2 extra hours. A number of candidates have made the decision to increase the polling. And thoughts you commissioner, the pandemic is to not blame for the lengthy queues — it’s the VCM (vote-counting machines). Individuals have been standing in line for 4 hours. How is that the fault of the individuals or the pandemic?”
Comelec has not prolonged voting hours as of the time of writing.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya (Fight Dishonest) mentioned that the breakdown of vote-counting machines this yr was a lot worse in comparison with the 2019 and 2016 elections at 1,800 versus 961 and 801, respectively.
The watchdog blamed the refurbished Smartmatic machines, which have been in use for the reason that 2010 presidential elections, for the disenfranchisement of as many as 1 million voters right now. A PHP637-million contract (US$12.09 million) was awarded to refurbish previous machines as an alternative of buying new ones.
Kontra Daya additionally famous that there have been fewer backup machines on standby this yr at 2,000 in comparison with 7,000 in 2019. The controversial F2 Logistics, the corporate in command of distributing the ballots and voting machines, is owned by Dennis Uy, a Davao-based businessman with recognized ties to President Duterte and was certainly one of his largest donors within the 2016 presidential elections.
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