Poll watchdog doubts 11 hours enough for all to vote

After witnessing Saturday’s mock polls at the New Era Elementary School in Quezon City, a group of election watchdogs expressed doubts that the eleven-hour voting period on May 10 would be enough to accommodate all voters. “The average time it took the mock voters to vote was 5 to 6 minutes. That is inclusive of the fact that they were not looking for their names in the voters list (they went straight to the polling center) and they were not looking for the names of real candidates in the mock ballot," said the group, Kontradaya 2010, in a statement posted on the Kontradaya website on Saturday. Kontradaya 2010 is composed of different sectoral groups advocating clean and honest automation of elections in May. Among the members are Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), science and technology group Agham, Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), Filipino for Progress, Justice, and Progress Movement (FPJPM), as well as teachers, government employees, and Church people. “At this rate, there may not be enough time to allow 1,000 voters per precinct to vote from 7 am to 6 pm on May 10. If 50 voters will need 110 minutes to vote, that would mean 36 hours for 1,000 people to vote. The mock polls of course were unusual since there were other factors that caused delay, such as the ground rules for media coverage and the physical set up of the classroom," the statement further said. “If we speed up the rate, say just 1 hour for 50 voters, that would still require 20 hours for 1,000 people to vote. If we go by a 75% voter turnout, that would still require some 15 hours for 750 people to vote." According to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Saturday’s mock polls went fairly well, with the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines functioning properly without the interference of signal jammers that impeded the poll body’s earlier field tests. “Pag-uusapan pa namin kung paano na (We’ll have to discuss what’s next). We are also not sure what the Comelec is prepared to do in the event that there is no material time to accommodate all voters," said Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr. in a text message to GMANews.TV. Reyes said Kontradaya 2010 will be deploying observers nationwide on election day as poll watchers. The Comelec has set a two-minute target for every transmission made by the PCOS to various sites, such as the Comelec Central Office in Manila. During Saturday’s mock polls, the first set of election returns were transmitted to the Comelec’s main office in one minute and 17 seconds, but another set meant for the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) was successfully transmitted only after four tries reportedly due to downtime of KBP servers. The transmission succeeded around two hours after the last vote has been cast in the precinct.—JV, GMANews.TV