Comelec chairman to public: Go out and vote

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. urged the Filipino public to go out and vote in today's midyear elections amid the wet weather.

 

“Gumising na po kayo [at] pumunta na po kayo sa presinto,” said Brillantes on GMA News' Eleksyon 2013 TV coverage on Monday morning.

 

Brillantes said that one of the main problems during elections is vote-buying adding that “Maraming napo-prosecute pero walang naco-convict.” 

 

He also said that he has not yet received an official complaint regarding delays, disorder and vote buying among other election offenses.

 

“Wala pa kong natatanggap, officially. Wala pa,” Brillantes said.

 

However, even before polls were opened, four to five explosions were reported by GMA's Jiggy Manicad in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, an election hotspot.

 

Manicad added that the explosions were heard near a checkpoint with the first explosion occuring as early as Sunday night.

 

Meanwhile, Precinct-Count Optical Scanners (PCOS) machines started to malfunction in some polling areas including Pampanga and Sorsogon.

 

According to GMA Eleksyon 2013's Lia Mañalac-del Castillo, the PCOS machine in a Pampanga precinct started to reject ballots after 10 have been accepted.   

Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) are setting aside the rejected ballots until further instructions from their executive officer. They are currently contacting the municipal for a machine replacement.

 

GMA Eleksyon 2013's Sherrie Ann Torres also reported an earlier PCOS malfunction in Precinct 79-A in Sorsogon just 30 minutes after voting started where a machine failed to read a memory card.

 

The machine became funtional after 35 minutes.

 

DZBB's Glen Juego also reported that disorder and confusion started in a polling area in Marikina City due to some voters being unable to find their names in the voters' list. —Andrei Medina/KG, GMA News