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By GERMELINA LACORTE / Davao Today
Carmen Gultiano, a voter in one of the precinct clusters at the Daniel Aguinaldo National High School, came out of her precinct tired, agitated and unable to hide her frustrations after spending six hours just to vote. Gultiano arrived at her precinct at eight o’clock in the morning and was only able to vote at two thirty in the afternoon.
By CHERYLL D. FIEL / Davao Today
It was not the machine glitches that many people were worried about but the poll clerk’s hunt for names of registered voters and other verification procedures that slowed down the voting process in the recently-concluded elections.
By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN / Davao Today
In Buhangin area, a voter saw the name of a dead relative while others look for the name of a living family member.
By GRACE S. UDDIN / Davao Today
A supporter of House Speaker Prospero Nograles was detained at the Sta. Ana police station for alleged vote buying on the day of the elections.
By GRACE S. UDDIN / Davao Today
Captain Emmanuel Garcia, spokesperson of the 10th ID-AFP, said an undetermined number of rebels attacked soldiers of the 66th Infantry Battalion escorting a group of Board of Election Inspectors (BEI’s) for the canvassing of votes at the municipal hall of Maragusan.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Team of foreign election observers experience threat, harassments, and intimidation by military in Abra.
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
With reports from JOSEPH BACUD
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 7 boasted of an 80 percent voter turnout. Pagbabago! Cebu said a number of votes were disenfranchised due to the Comelec's inability to foresee simple and preventable problems.
BANGUED, ABRA -- Theodore C. Lopez of the US Embassy together with three other companions were in Abra during the elections. Theodore C. Lopez approached a delegate of the PIOM while waiting for the opening of the canvassing area in the Provincial Capitol. The PIOM team asked Vanessa Roncal, supervisor of the Comelec in the region, if she knew about the presence of US embassy personnel in Bangued. Roncal replied that the US embassy personnel came right after the PIOM paid a visit to the Comelec Regional office.
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
As in most parts of the country, long queues and technical glitches affected the conduct of elections in Central Visayas. In Cebu, there were reports that indicated that only 50 percent of voters have been accommodated by 6:45 p.m.
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Nothing seems to have changed in the conduct of elections in Lanao.
MAGUINDANAO -- Residents push their way inside a polling precinct in Buldon town. Hundreds of voters are getting impatient -- shouting, shoving, banging the doors of the precinct, demanding that they be allowed in. An army soldier tries to break a scuffle while poll watchers and the BEIs insist that voting should be one at a time. This year's elections, will serve as a test to Philippines’ fragile democracy. Once an inspiration to emerging democracies for its “people power” overthrow of the American-backed autocrat Ferdinand E. Marcos, the Philippines has suffered from poor governance in the past decade.
MAGUINDANAO -- Despite the rain, voters in Tugaig, a village in Barira town, continue to line up. ‘See these people? They line up to vote. But will the politicians do to them after being elected? They will ignore them,’ says a woman beside me.
By CARLOS H. CONDE
Despite the promise of order that computerization brings, the conduct of the elections in Maguindanao province and other areas in Mindanao leaves much to be desired.
DAVAO CITY -- Voting in Barangay Centro Agdao is going at a snail's pace. Lines are long and at the rate the automated voting is progressing, observers fear many will not be able to cast their ballots by the time polling centers close. Voters who have agonized waiting in line grudgingly call the PCOS machines "tikas machines", with pun intended. Workers, who still have to report for work and those who find the long lines and the wait much too daunting, have already left the precincts without casting their votes.
Bangued, ABRA -- In other precincts, people are complaining of the very slow process -- from checking the names of the voters to submitting the ballot to the PCOS machine. Some even went home because they cannot handle the extreme heat. At Precinct #7, BEIs manually collected the ballots. The PCOS machine cannot process the ballots due to defective CF card. The BEI said, they are still waiting for the replacement CF cards to arrive from Manila. A voter told Bulatlat in an interview that the glitches might disenfranchise the votes.
MAGUINDANAO -- Hundreds of people line up outside Buldon Elementary School since early morning to vote. While no untoward incident occurred, it’s a bit chaotic here as voters jostle to enter the voting precincts. "Magulo pero masaya," says Kabiba Tomawis, a voter.
CAVITE -- Delegates of the People's International Observers’ Mission participated in the mock elections in San Labrador Town in Dasmariñas, Cavite today, May 9, 2010. In Dasmariñas North National High School, one precint experienced glitches when votes for some local candidates were not counted by the PCOS machine. The problem was solved when the CF card was replaced.
Datu Piang, MAGUINDANAO -- Workers unload election equipment at the Datu Piang town hall in Maguindanao. In some areas in the province, delivery of PCOS machines was a problem. Reports said this morning that Comelec people were prevented from delivering these machines to Buldon, a farflung town in Maguindanao.
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