Malfunctioning counting machines, SD cards is ”small”: Comelec

May 13, 2019

Several polling precincts were forced to open a few hours later than the scheduled 6 am as vote counting machines (VCMs), and Secure Digital (SD) cards malfunctioned, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.

In a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Forum Tent, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said "The general sense is that they are all functioning. We just haven’t been able to hear from them yet."

Among those that experienced delays, said Jimenez, are a number of precincts in Isabela, Zambales, Naga City in Cebu, Samar, Compostela Valley, and Sultan Kudarat.

He said as of Monday afternoon, Comelec was able to record about 400 to 600 VCMs that must be replaced.

He said the number could increase as reports from the field come in.

"The figure is small out of the 85,000. So it seems to me, it is still within range. The reason it is so jarring is that we have fewer incidents in 2016," said Jimenez.

"Right now, the primarily cause of delay that we are looking at are the SD cards. Some of the SD cards are not functioning and would have to be replaced," said Jimenez.

Jimenez said they will no longer be surprised if there will be sectors that shall question the credibility of the midterm elections.

"We never said this will be perfect elections. We've never said that to any of our elections. We also said that with so many machines in use, it is inevitable that some of them will experience malfunctions," said Jimenez. DMS