MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials said yesterday that the polls conducted last May 9 were “the best elections, so far” despite the problems with vote counting machines (VCMs) and secure digital (SD) cards.
“This is the election with the least problems,” Comelec Commissioner George Garcia pointed out as he rated the success of the May 9 vote.
Echoing Garcia’s sentiments, Comelec acting spokesman Rex Laudiangco said the success of the recent elections was evident “because of the quickness and full disclosure of the results to the public” and the generally peaceful situation on election day.
“The elections were therefore very transparent, fully monitored by all real-time, with watchdogs vetting the results across the board. This, in turn made, the results credible,” Laudiangco said.
Notwithstanding the P14-million mess over payments of the hotel venue for the presidential debates or questions over the rulings on disqualification cases against now presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the Comelec was able to hold “honest elections at all costs,” Garcia said.
“We value our critics. It is from them that we gained a lot of insights. We cannot have a monopoly of knowledge. More heads are better than one. They deserve our attention always,” he said, when asked about various criticisms of the Comelec.
Early last year, the Comelec launched its communications campaign VOTESAFE, or Safe, Accurate, Free and Fair Elections in a bid to address the major challenges facing the poll body amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the Comelec recorded over 67 million registered voters, which it attributed to its partnership with different malls and barangay officials where they held remote voter registration services.