MANILA, Philippines — Despite some delays, yesterday’s plebiscite to ratify the law dividing Palawan into three provinces was generally peaceful.
Maj. Gen. Alfred Corpus, Philippine National Police Directorate for Operations chief, said they did not monitor any major untoward incident.
Corpus said 1,450 police officers aside from 350 soldiers were deployed for the political exercise.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez, said voting went ”smoothly” and was “unabated” as of 1 p.m. yesterday despite persistent rain.
Jimenez said polling precincts opened on time, except in Kalayaan Island, due to the late arrival of election supplies and paraphernalia.
He said they received “only one verified instance of an untoward incident” when certain officials in Barangay Tata in Coron refused to give health declaration forms to some voters.
At least 490,639 voters have registered for the plebiscite.