THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) Cebu wants to raise the transmission rate of election results, so it needs to adjust and train more people to avoid delay, an experience in the mock elections last Feb. 13.
If results are not yet ready due to delays in transmission to Comelec and Manila servers, results in the Comelec website will be incomplete.
“So ang thinking sa uban ana naay milagrong gihimo and we want to avoid that (Some might think there is an irregularity),” said Cebu Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano.
Castillano said there might be another transmission test this April as they wait for updates from the main office.
New vote counting machines (VCM) arrived yesterday at the Comelec Cebu office, in time for Feb. 17 to 19 training of election officers (EO), said Castillano.
In March, EOs will start training teachers who will serve as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI).
Castillano will be temporarily replaced by Bohol Election Supervisor Eliseo Lavaria as part of the Comelec revamp starting Feb. 16 and until the end of the election period, which will be on June 30.
Past rates
In 2010, Comelec’s transmission had a 90-percent success rate, he said. But in 2013, it went down to barely above 70 percent.
This prompted the commission to improve, make it faster and move accurate.
“Ang atong mga teachers maninguha gyud nga mo-transmit para mawala ang mga pagduda (Our teachers should do their best to transmit the results to avoid suspicion),” he said.
On election day, if the signal is strong, he said they will be using the Globe, Smart and Sun service. Transmission is only five to 10 minutes when there is a good signal, he said.
“Gamiton lamang nato to (broadband global access network via satellite) kung walay signal (We will use it when there is no signal),” he said.
Castillano said that last Feb. 13, the mock election counting machines were 100 percent accurate, except for the delay in transmission of canvass reports since there was no signal from the remote mountain barangays in Santander.
Travel
The BEI, after the voting closed at 1 p.m., brought the machines to the town proper, which was seven kilometers away, where there was a signal, so they could transmit the canvass report.
The report reached Comelec office past 2 p.m., and by 3 p.m. they already had printed canvass reports from the president down to the lowest official.
But the glitch should not be a cause for worry.
“Before ta mobiya didto sa (voting) presinto, mag-print na man ta og walo ka election returns, so ang mga tawo didto sa presinto kabalo na daan unsa ang resulta didto sa presinto ayha nato i-biyahe ang transmission equipment (Before we leave the precincts, we print eight election returns, so the people there already know the results before we transport the equipment),” said Castillano.