Isabela canvassing suspended until Wednesday morning

(Updated 10:44 PM) Provincial canvassing of votes in Isabela has been suspended until Wednesday morning after compact flash cards in eight areas have not been reconfigured for the May 10 polls. The areas include vote-rich cities of Cauayan and Santiago, and the municipalities of Alicia, Angadanan, Cabagan, Palanan, San Agustin, and Sta. Maria. "The common denominator in all these places is that the CF cards have not been reconfigured. Without the CF cards, the PCOS [Precinct Count Optical System] machines will not work and no [one] will be proclaimed," said provincial election supervisor Manuel Castillo. The CF cards provide instructions to automated poll machines on how to read a ballot and transmit election results to the municipal or city board of canvassers. Castillo explained that the concern on the defective memory cards has already been reported to Smartmatic's national support center in Manila. However, there is a "long backlog" of areas with malfunctioning CF cards that needs to be acted upon, he said. "Bukas pa lang ma re-reconfigure yung CF cards," Castillo said told reporters and dozens of poll-watchers inside the provincial capitol. He also stressed that the problem is no longer with the Commission on Elections but with the Smartmatic, the technology provider for the country’s first nationwide automated elections. The canvassing will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Padaca ahead of Dy Isabela, the Philippines’ second largest province in the country, has 870,381 number of voters as of January 9, 2010. Its gubernatorial race has also attracted attention after reelectionist Gov. Grace Padaca toppled the Dys, a well-entrenched political family that held Isabela’s top executive post for 34 years before losing it to the lady governor in 2004. For this year’s election Padaca, who is seeking her third and last term, is challenged by Faustino “Bojie" Dy III, considered as the most charming among his brothers. Based on provincial Comelec’s partial tally, the lady governor has so far earned 229,386 votes against Bojie’s 188,976. Castillo stressed that the provincial tally is not yet complete and because of the number of voters, election results in the affected areas except for Santiago, which is an independent city, will play a significant role in the results for gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial posts. Castillo also said that if all problematic CF cards are replaced or reconfigured tonight, the provincial board of election canvassers can finally proclaim the winning candidates on Wednesday. He also assured that the ballots are protected from any forms of cheating and tampering. “May lock yung mga ballot boxes at may mga nagbabantay non," Castillo said. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV