Poll body sees fewer clusters in Cordillera

COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Regional Election Director Julius Torres is hopeful there will be less clustering of precincts in Cordillera.

Torres said the previous clustering of precincts in the region was not properly distributed giving problems in the 2010 elections. “We are hoping to lessen the clustering next year.”

In 2010, there were 1,700 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines scattered in the provincial percents. The terrain of the region forced Smartmatic, automation partner of Comelec, to release machines earlier to ensure polling centers on time.

In La Trinidad there were 48 clustered precincts with 34,779 voters expected to cast their votes in the country’s first automated election.

Torres said there are 847,702 voters registered in the latest voting list with 76 municipalities and 1,175 barangays for the whole Cordillera region.

As of the latest count in the Comelec there are 6,286 precincts.

Benguet lodged the highest number of voters with 178,474 with 140 barangays and 13 municipalities, followed by Abra with 143,159 voters and 27 municipalities.

Baguio City has 132,625 voters and 128 barangays and Kalinga with 135, 028 voters and eight municipalities.

Mountain Province logged 100,848 voters and 10 municipalities while Ifugao has 97,574 voters and 11 municipalities and Apayao has 60,000 voters and 7 municipalities.

In the past Benguet towns Bakun, Kibungan, Buguias, and Bokod got Broadband Global Area Network to assure continuous signal in the PCOS machines.