Voting delayed in 3 Northern Samar villages

TACLOBAN CITY — Voting had been delayed in some villages in Northern Samar on Monday due to peace and order concern and corrupted SD cards, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional office here reported.

Comelec Eastern Visayas Regional Director Rafael Olaño said casting of votes in Victory village, Las Navas, town has started past noon while the clustered precincts in Somoroy village, Bobon town opened almost noontime.

“Concerned of their safety, members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) returned to the town center of Las Navas and asked assistance from our local election officer. They were escorted by the military back to the remote village,” Olaño told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The Philippine Army’s 20th Infantry Battalion, in a text message, said teachers returned to the town around 9 a.m. after a group of residents stopped them and “demanded money in exchange (for) their votes”.

Victory village, with 537 registered voters, is about 12 kilometers upland from the town center and can only be reached through a two-hour hike. BEI members walked back to the village past 10 a.m. Voting has started past noontime, the Army said.

In Somoroy village, voting was delayed due to corrupted SD card. The Comelec regional office in this city completed the card’s configuration around 4 a.m. The village has 712 registered voters.

“After the configuration, the town’s assistant election officer has to travel five hours from the regional capital to Bobon town,” Olaño said. Bobon town is about 274 kilometers north from Tacloban City.

In the island village of Pulang Bato in Tagapul-an, Samar, the Comelec has yet to receive reports if the voting center has opened on time after the election officer went to the Comelec regional office on Sunday night to get help in fixing the corrupted SD card.

Poor mobile phone signal prevents the regional office from receiving updates from Pulang Bato village with 436 registered voters.

In Sinunugan village, Silvino Lobos, Northern Samar, voting has not yet started as of noontime as BEI members have to take a six-hour hike to get to the village, according to the Col. Ma. Bella Rentuaya, Philippine National Police Eastern Visayas regional spokesperson. The village has a voting population of 203.

Olaño said the opening of voting centers is generally peaceful although there are some glitches such as paper jams and malfunctioned vote counting machines.

“Those with reported problems only represent less than 10 percent of the total number of machines in the region. We are addressing these concerns through our contingency machines and technical people deployed in every precinct,” the Comelec regional chief said. The region has more than 4,000 machines.

About 3.01 million voters trooped to 3,503 clustered precincts in six provinces of the region on Monday’s mid-term polls to elect senators, partylist, members of Houses of Representatives and local government officials.