Comelec: All poll machines delivered by Friday

All the machines that will be used in the May 10 elections will be delivered by Friday, two days before the February 28 deadline, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured on Monday. "All the machines should be here by the 26th," Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters at a press briefing. The supplier, Smartmatic-TIM, had earlier said the delivery of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines would be completed by February 21 or a week before the deadline. Smartmatic-TIM will be slapped with a daily fine of P7.5 million until the delivery is completed once it misses the February 28 deadline, Larrazabal said. "All the machines have been shipped, everything else is in transit right now," he said. The machines will be coming from Suzhou in China. Of the 82,200 PCOS machines that Smartmatic has committed to provide the poll body, 64,620 are already in their warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna; 4,000 are just awaiting release from the Bureau of Customs; and 13,580 are currently en route to the country, Smartmatic spokesman Gene Gregorio said. Only about 76,000 of the 82,200 purchased poll machines will be used in the May polls because each clustered precinct will need only one unit. The rest will be used as spares. As of January 15, there are already a total number of 50,723,734 registered voters, 37,422 voting centers, and 76,340 clustered precincts. Smartmatic-TIM initially promised to deliver 42,200 PCOS units by the end of November last year, but the schedule was moved to December 2009. At the end of 2009, only 7,200 units were delivered due to costly shipping and traffic problems during the holiday season, according to the Comelec. [See: Costlier shipping delayed poll machine delivery – Comelec] Comelec chairman Jose Melo said Smartmatic-TIM has since committed to deliver about 9,600 machines weekly. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV