Comelec: No discrepancy in mock polls amid pandemic

The nationwide mock elections conducted on December 29 amid the COVID-19 pandemic did not show discrepancy, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Thursday.

Comelec director Elaiza David made the clarification in light of what happened in Pasay City during the mock polls where 786 votes were allegedly transmitted when the voter turnout was only 390.

"We really need to clarify that. The total number of registered voters in that clustered precinct is 786. For the mock elections, the expected [number of voters] is 400. So out of that 400, there were 390 who participated," David said during the Laging Handa briefing.

"So wala po tayong discrepancy, medyo hindi lang po malinaw siguro iyong pagkaka-explain yesterday, iyon po. So there is no discrepancy, ang talaga pong bumoto lang is 390 out of that 400 na we expect for the mock election (There is no discrepancy, and it was just not explained clearly. There is no discrepancy, and 390 out of 400 we are expecting to vote actually went to vote)," she added.

Likewise, David said COVID-19 symptoms were not detected among those who participated in the mock polls.

However, one of the challenges they encountered was the ballots not being able to fit the vote counting machines, causing long queues given the required social distancing to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

"The problem we saw involved feeding the ballot, which has resulted in the people being in the queue for a while. Ang siste po is, medyo nag-expand po iyong ating balota dahil yata sa weather o iyong temperature. Ginawa nga nila is trinim (trim) nila iyong balota. (What happened was, the ballot expanded maybe because of the weather or temperature, so the ballots had to be trimmed)," she said.

"So, iyon po, ipapaabot po natin iyan sa mga kinauukulan doon sa Comelec para ma-address din po iyan pagdating sa talagang eleksiyon na. Kasi we cannot afford naman po na magkaroon tayo palagi nang ganoong klaseng problema that we have trim iyong ating mga balota (We will raise this concern to the authorities for them to address because we cannot afford having that issue with our ballots)," she added.

David said there is no schedule for another round of mock elections so far but she assured the public that the Comelec will be prepared come May 2022.

"Definitely, a lot of our observations [during the mock polls], as well as those of LENTE, PPCRV, NAMFREL, those are all taken into account to be addressed and we are prepared for it," she said.

"We will have contingencies, we know what to do and what to expect," she added.

The national elections is set on May 9, 2022.

The campaign period for national candidates starts on February 8, 2022, while the campaign period for local candidates starts a month later.

There are around 66 million Filipino registered voters for the May 2022 national elections, the first to be held in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.—AOL, GMA News