Defective machines, violent incidents mar polls

MANILA, Philippine (Xinhua) - Despite reports of defective Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, fears of fraud and isolated cases of political killings, more than 52,000 Filipinos continue to troop to their local precincts today, determined to cast their votes for both local and national positions.

Polling precincts nationwide opened at around 7 a.m. local time, with thousands of voters nationwide casting their votes for candidates competing for more than 18,000 posts including 12 senatorial seats, 1,600 town mayoral posts and 80 provincial gubernatorial posts. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the winning local bets will be known within the next 24 hours while winners in the senatorial race will be announced Wednesday.

While the midterm elections are generally peaceful, voters in some provinces like Caloocan City, Taguig, Batangas and Abra were frustrated with malfunctioning PCOS machines and power outages. There were also reports of missing precincts, oversized ballots and missing names on the Computerized Voters' List.

Sally Pimentel, a housewife from Manila, woke up early to vote for her candidates. While she complained that she had to wait longer owing to technical glitches, she didn't leave her precinct, casting her vote for candidates who she believed will perform well as public officials.    

Amid these reports, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said in a press briefing that they're not declaring failure of elections. He added that the voting schedule won't be extended and precincts will close as scheduled - at 7 p.m., local time  

There were some reported incidents of political killings in some provinces, especially in the south. In Northern Cotabato, an improvised explosive device exploded in front of the Pilot Central Elementary School Monday morning.  No one was reported killed or injured in the blast but it damaged the steel bench of the school. Sunday night, troops from the 1st Mechanized Brigade retrieved and detonated an improvised bomb at Timbangan village in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao. In Sulu, one person died and four others were injured in a Monday's ambush caused by "intense political rivalry".

Armed Forces Spokesman Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan assured that they're securing the polls and reports of violent incidents are isolated cases.

"People were able to go to polling centers and were able to cast their votes. The violent incidents are isolated incidents and won't disrupt the electoral process," he said.

President Benigno S. Aquino III, for his part, expressed satisfaction today when he cast his vote for the midterm elections.

Aquino voted in Central Azucarera de Tarlac Elementary School in his home province in Tarlac.

According to him, this was the first time that he was able to use the PCOS machine since in 2010 when he was running for president, there was a problem on the machine.

"There's a big difference from 2010. As you remember we could not use the PCOS machine. For the first time (I was able to) use PCOS machine," he said in an interview with the media after he cast his vote.

The president, who was accompanied by his two sisters and other relatives, waited on the line for 20 minutes before he could enter the clustered precinct. It took him ten minutes to cast his vote.