THE Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Davao will be holding a simultaneous mock election in Digos City and Bansalan, Davao del Sur Saturday, January 19, to test the automated transmittal of votes for the midterm election.
Lawyer Krisna Samantha Caballero, Comelec-Davao spokesperson, said that it will be a nationwide activity in 26 selected areas in the country which is aimed at refining glitches and address gaps ahead of the 2019 national and local elections.
“The choice is not from the regional office, that’s coming from [Manila],” she said.
Through this, they could assess the accuracy of the machines which will be coming from Manila and check the transmission as well as the signal. She added that the activity will also be attended by the Comelec commissioner.
These areas will also host the pilot implementation of Biometric Voter Registration System (BVRS) which uses a fingerprint verification system.
“Mag pa-pilot pa lang tayo, ita-try kung how effective but hindi pa siya implemented for the entire Region 11,” she said.
With the BVRS, voters’ names and digital images will appear for easy and fast verification process.
Based on the consolidated Quarterly Progress Report (QPR) on October 25, 2018 Election Registration Board (ERB) hearing in Davao region, this year’s election has a total of 3,026,393 registered voters.
Of this figure, Davao City has the highest number of registered voters at 984,604 followed by Davao del Norte with 605,643; Compostela Valley with 462,942; Davao del Sur with 425,586; Davao Oriental with 365,496 and Davao Occidental with 182,122.
She added that there are a total of 1,162 barangays with 19,701 established precincts in the region and 3,777 clustered precincts. (JCR)