Difficult terrain, lack of signal delay poll results in Kalinga

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — The difficulty of the terrain located on mountains, rains, and the absence of Internet signal have prevented the transmission of results from the highland municipalities of Kalinga province in the evening of May 13.

“Some of the vote counting machines (VCMs) will have to be carried with people manually transporting them to the municipal town halls or where the signal reaches the villages,” lawyer Ricardo Lampac, Kalinga provincial election supervisor said on Monday evening.

As of 9 p.m., the provincial electoral board of canvassers has not convened. Before midnight, only a few of the precincts from lowland towns have transmitted the results.

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Lampac said the towns of Lubuagan, Pasil, Rizal, and Tanudan have fully transmitted the results to the provincial electoral board in Tabuk City.

“Medyo nahirapan ang mga presinto kasi yung iba walang signal, yung iba naman kailangan pa lumakad sa lugar kung saan may signal at hindi madaling gawin lalo at parang bagyo ang ulan kahapon hanggang kagabi (it is quite difficult because some of the [voting] precincts do not have signals while the other areas have to be walked and hiked to reach the places where there is signal which was difficult especially with the typhoon-like rains that was experienced on Monday afternoon until evening),” Lampac said.

Due to the rains and the slippery terrain, an accident occurred and killed one of the three persons who went to Barangay Mangali in Tanudan to cast their votes.

Lampac said there were few incidents that affected the conduct of the elections in Kalinga. He said one incident was in Balangayon, Pinukpuk town where the voting was delayed for about two hours after the arrival of the VCM was stalled.

He said security personnel first scoured the area for safety before Comelec personnel finally decided to transport the VCMs and arrived at the village almost 8 a.m.

Lampac also said there were 20 VCMs that malfunctioned or had corrupted SD cards. He said they hope to finish the provincial canvassing by Wednesday.