Election Day in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City was generally peaceful.
This was disclosed by Acting Provincial Elections Supervisor Roberto Salazar and Bacolod Elections Officer Revo Sorbito on Monday, May 9.
The Provincial Election Monitoring Action Team (PEMAT) said there were 43 vote counting machines in Negros Occidental that were reported defective or 1.4 percent of 2,906 VCMs distributed provincewide.
However, even if the VCMs and SD cards malfunctioned the voting could still proceed, Salazar said.
The voters could agree to vote and have their ballots read by a replaced or repaired VCM machine later in the day, or wait to vote when the machine was operational, he said.
There were 26 defective VCMs reported at 2 p.m. but the number increased to 43 or 1.4 percent of the total number of machines as of 7 p.m. Monday,
The PEMAT said of the 43 defective VCMs in Negros Occidental on Election Day, 33 were replaced or repaired as of 7 p.m. on Monday.
Nine VCMs were waiting for replacement or repair and one precinct would resort to manual count, the PEMAC reported.
There were 15 power interruptions at precincts provincewide and electricity was restored in 14 as of 7 p.m., it added.*