TECHNICAL glitch and system failure encountered during the polls has prompted the national board of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) to declare a failure of elections.
The elections, which were held on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2020, at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City was supposed to install the PCL’s new chairman, president and board members.
Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, chairman of the PCL in Central Visayas, said the electoral board and the council’s members have decided to postpone the elections.
Garcia said this will give the Commission on Elections (Comelec) enough time to fix technical problems.
“There were instances where different names appeared during the voting. Some votes were also not counted by the computer,” he said.
The postponement of the polls was also recommended by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
For now, PCL members will have to wait 60 days, or until a final action is taken by the DILG and Comelec, before they can push through with the polls.
In a situation like this, Garcia said the 17,163 council members nationwide for the 11th National Congress can either return to Manila to cast their votes, or hold the elections on an island-level.
“Most of the councilors actually prefer the elections (be done) by island because aside from we can save time, we can also save money. Some find going to Manila takes a lot of time,” Garcia added.
The PCL elections, though, had been marred by allegations of vote buying prior to postponement. (JJL)