Village and youth council elections were postponed in 1,732 barangay (villages) Monday after the majority of them failed to receive ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia, the Commission on Elections said Monday.
Comelec Elections and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD) director Teopisto Elnas told a news conference that this number constitutes 4.12 percent of the total 42,025 villages nationwide.
Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento attributed the failure to hold elections in these villages to either the late delivery of ballot boxes and election paraphernalia or to the onslaught of typhoon Juan (international name: Megi).
Earlier in a separate news conference, police Director Benjamin Belarmino, chairman of the national task force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections), said the majority of the villages that postponed elections were in the Bicol Region, namely: Masbate (551), Albay (321 villages), Catanduanes (315) and Sorsogon (246).
Other provinces that postponed their elections are: Pangasinan (19 villages), Isabela (87), Nueva Vizcaya (16), Cagayan (20), Tarlac (2), Capiz (20) and Aklan (2).
Elnas said that in Marawi City, 23 villages failed to conduct elections. Based on reports reaching the Comelec, the boards of election inspectors in these villages failed to go to the polling centers as they were barricaded and prevented from leaving.
Areas that failed to conduct elections on Monday will do so either on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to a resolution issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Comelec Resolution 9078, issued on October 24, states that if election paraphernalia and other forms do not arrive by 12 noon on Election Day at the polling centers, voting should be moved to Tuesday, October 26, or even on Wednesday, October 27.
“The Election Officer shall announce the postponement of elections in the polling centers affected and the date of resetting of elections,” the resolution stated.
Reports of postponed elections came Monday from several towns across the country. But Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body was still verifying these reports at the main Comelec headquarters in Manila.
Based on the Comelec official announcement, Jimenez said areas where there were postponed elections included Palanan, Divilacan, Maconacon, and two villages in Paniqui, Tarlac (San Isidro and Sumalague).
The same resolution also stated that in areas where election paraphernalia arrive before 12 noon, voting should proceed and continue up to 5 p.m.
“If after 5 p.m. there are still voters present who have not yet cast their votes…the poll clerk shall, without delay, list the names of said voters consecutively numbered.
“The voters listed shall be called to vote by the poll clerk by announcing each name three times in the order in which they are listed. Any voter in the list who is not present when called shall not be permitted to vote at any later time. The said list shall be submitted to the Election Officer,” the resolution said.
Despite the generally peaceful local elections so far, police noted incidents of vote-buying, vote snatching and alleged presence of armed groups.
Belarmino said reports of incidents of vote-buying and snatching took place in Abra. There were also reports of armed men in polling precincts in Antipolo City.
The incidents of election-related violence also went up to 47, where 32 people died in these attacks. Most of the attacks occurred in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“Compared with the 2007 [local] election, we still consider this as peaceful in the sense that the incidents of violence are fewer. In 2007, there were 67 ERVIs (election-related violent incidents),” Belarmino said.
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