The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) expects to complete the deployment of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) to be used in the May 2022 national and local elections in different local hubs in the province for temporary storage today.
COMELEC-Palawan spokesperson Jomel Ordas said 1,018 VCMs were delivered to Puerto Princesa City, which included the machines for the mainland towns, while 138 VCMs for the Calamian Islands were delivered to Coron town.
The deployment of Automated Election Systems (AES), which includes the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) and Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS), which also arrived recently, is part of the election preparation pending the distribution in different polling centers before May 9.
Ordas said that the supplies are for all Palawan towns except for Cuyo, Agutaya, and Magsaysay, which COMELEC identified as priority areas, where the supplies will be delivered directly from its main office in Manila and are expected to arrive on Thursday.
“Kung ilan ang clustered precincts or bilang ng room ng pagbobotohan ay ‘yon ang katumbas ng bilang ng VCM. Ang CCS Kit naman ay binubuo ng laptop, printer at transmission device na gagamitin ng mga Board of Canvassers natin sa pagcanvass ng boto at pagconsolidate ng mga results,” Ordas said.
“Hindi po dyan kasama ang mga AES supplies for CAM dahil ihahatid po ng direct doon bilang mga priority areas,” he added.
Aside from VCMs, the COMELEC also delivered an additional 207 ballot boxes, in addition to the existing ballot boxes in municipal and city treasurers’ offices.
“Ang additional ballot boxes ay karagdagang sa mga natitirang ballot boxes na in good condition and available sa pangangalaga ng mga city at municipal treasurers natin na ginamit nooong 2016 at 2019 elections,” he said.
Ordas also said that the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of the VCMs will be conducted before May 4.