Elections at Rizal High School peaceful but marred by VCM glitches

Voting went peacefully at Rizal High School in Pasig City, which has one of the biggest population of voters in the country, although there were delays due to problems with the vote-counting machines.

"Generally, many voters are very eager to vote. Even the PWDs want to cast their votes," said principal Virginia Membrebe on Monday.

A total of 16,788 voters were registered in Rizal High School's 24 precincts for the May 2016 national and local elections.

"The common problem is the VCM machine. That caused the delay," Membrebe said.

Membrebe said she received around seven reports of malfunctioning VCMs throughout the day, most of them in the afternoon, which she said could be due to the heat.

"Nung napansin ko ay nung morning, dalawa o tatlo lang ang nagka-aberya. Nung nagtanghali ay nagsabay-sabay na," Membrebe said.

Some of the VCMs rejected ballots, while some failed to issue receipts due to overheating. The machines were fixed by technicians who were on standby for such eventuality.

Membrebe said the longest delay lasted for an hour and a half.

No VCM had needed to be replaced.

The oversight in the school's part was the lack of technicians, Membrebe said, adding from five initial technicians, the number dropped to three.

"There should have been enough technicians, not just one for every five [machines]," Membrebe said.

But given the large number of voters in the school, Membrebe said they were lucky to have a relatively peaceful elections.

"Generally naman peaceful siya, no untoward incidents. We are lucky, kasi maraming voters," she said.

Although voting time was supposed to end at 5 p.m., Rizal High School extended to accommodate the remaining voters

Voting has been declared officially over at 6 p.m. —KBK, GMA News