Written by Allen Limos
Published May 20, 2022
Photo Credit: Pola Rubio
MANILA, Philippines — On May 10, a day after the elections, protesters rallied at the headquarters of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Intramuros, Manila after various reports of vote-counting machines (VCMs) failing occurred in different parts of the country during the election day.
According to COMELEC Commissioner George Garcia, there were 1,800 VCMs that malfunctioned, most of which had issues with the Secure Digital (SD) cards. However, according to Garcia, the issues have already been “resolved.”
Video posted on Tiktok by Liam Hammer Dumas during election day
Yet, this was not the case for other voters. There were several videos that spread online about people waiting in line in their precincts due to VCM issues. Because of this, many voters were left stuck in their precincts until such time where voting has been officially ended by COMELEC.
Photo Credit: Kontra Daya website
According to KontraDaya, an organization that commits to oppose election fraud, the VCMs that malfunctioned this year increased twice compared to previous elections.
Aside from this, the protesters also rejected the partial and unofficial victory of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, as president. The protesters claimed the polls were fraudulent due to COMELEC’s lack of a seamless election, namely the issues mentioned above.
As of 12:26 a.m, May 13, Marcos Jr. still leads with 31,104,175 votes, based on 98.35% of partial, unofficial COMELEC election results.
This is an important part of any democracy / republic! The way voters cast their votes needs to be streamlined and secured indefinitely. A focus on making sure these issues are resolved is needed!