GOV. GWENDOLYN Garcia and Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez Jr. took the lead in an unofficial tally, with the ballots of about 27 percent of Cebu’s voters counted.
Garcia had 311,817 votes, with Liberal Party candidate Hilario Davide III getting 281,700, according to results released by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) website shortly after midnight.
In the race for vice governor, reelectionist Sanchez had 278,217 votes, compared to 254,328 for Glenn Anthony Soco. Cebu Province has 2.2 million registered voters.
The quick release of results, although still unofficial, eased some of the voters’ disappointment with the long wait they endured in order to vote.
These results are based on election returns sent from the precincts. The KBP gets the results at the same time as the city or municipal board of canvassers and the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) central server.
However, complete official results from Cebu’s towns and cities were not yet available last night, while some precincts continued the voting process past 9 p.m. or had yet to transmit their results.
Still, the swift announcement of partial results was in stark contrast to previous elections. It eased some of the anger and disappointment thousands of voters expressed, after waiting in line for hours (some as long as eight hours, or a full workday) just to vote.
Although complaints of missing names, malfunctioning Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and long waits were reported, the Regional Joint Security Control Center assured the start of the elections “generally went fine.”
“The first two hours was an adjustment period for both the Board of Elections Inspectors and the voters,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) 7 Director Dennis Ausan.
Their patience tested, voters raised all sorts of suggestions to manage crowd control better.
But it wasn’t just poor crowd control that kept people in line for long. Malfunctioning PCOS units stretched the wait even further. Also part of the problem was the decision to cluster as many as six precincts in one polling place.
Bad decision-making by those running the precincts bugged voters more than the new gadgets in the country’s first automated elections.
According to reports reaching the Comelec-PNP-Armed Forces Joint Security Control Center, a lot of people went home without voting.
“It’s how they (members of the Board of Election Inspectors) managed the flow of the people in the precinct,” said Judge Gabriel Ingles, a volunteer for the Cebu Citizens’ Involvement and Maturation for Empowerment and Liberation (C-Cimpel).
“We are happy there is a heavy turnout of voters. But we are concerned and sad because of the slow process in voting. And we are afraid that a big percentage of the number of voters might be disenfranchised if this continues,” he said.
While the Provincial Board of Canvassers waited for results at the Capitol Social Hall, outside, a coalition of five party-list groups protested.
They did this to air their appeal to extend the voting cut-off from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
“Let’s not disenfranchise millions of voters who have not even voted yet,” said Rene Oliva, chairperson of Kabataan party-list.
He said that an hour’s extension was not enough, when only an estimated 30 percent of the province has voted as of 6:35 p.m.
“Dugay ni start, langayan ang mga tawo, PCOS na wala nagwork (It started late, people procrastinated and some PCOS machines malfunctioned),” said Anna Desemparado.
Kabataan, Bayan Muna, Anak Pawis, Gabriela and Act-Teachers party-lists organized the protest, right outside the Capitol building that houses the provincial canvassing center.
Complaints about the long lines were the most common, in an election that officials assessed as generally peaceful.
In Cebu City, defective PCOS machines delayed the voting in some precincts for hours. Slow-moving lines in overcrowded precincts tested voters’ patience.
In the Apas Elementary School, one machine from clustered precinct 11 broke down three times before 11:30 a.m. After an hour, the machine functioned again after Smartmatic-TIM technicians fixed it.
In the Don Vicente Rama School, three machines also broke down, delaying the voting process.
In Lahug Elementary School, a voter who spent hours looking for clustered precinct collapsed because of the heat. (Maria Camille Carballo and Lareina Devi Rajah, UP Interns)