ARMM elections go manual anew

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dropped its preparations for automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Aug. 8 and decided to go manual again.

In an en banc resolution yesterday, the seven-man poll body ordered that the manual system be adopted in canvassing the results of the ARMM elections, citing the lack of time to prepare for an automated system.

"With barely two months to go before the political exercise, the commission is placed in a tight predicament considering the numerous activities yet to be finalized," Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos said.

Abalos said the preparations for automated ARMM polls began soon after the Comelec filed last December a petition requesting the Supreme Court to allow it to use automated counting machines.

The High Court, however, has yet to act on the petition.

With the reversion to the manual system, the Comelec extended up to June 23 the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy for all ARMM positions and moved the start of the campaign period to June 24.

Meanwhile, ARMM traders said the regional polls should push through on Aug. 8, as scheduled, so as not to delay the region’s development.

"We want (the polls) to push through since we have to discuss more on business rather than these elections," Datu Haron Bandila, chairman of the ARMM Business Council, said in yesterday’s Ciudad Fernandina Forum. — With Sandy Araneta