By Mikha Flores, VERA Files
Bleeding pens and malfunctioning counting machines greeted overseas Filipino voters in Hong Kongbut Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes said the glitches will help them prepare for contingencies at home on election day itself.
The glitches and other problems that might occur during the month-long absentee voting for the May 13 elections will allow the Comelec to foresee and address such problems, said the poll chairman who witnessed the start of voting in Hong Kong on Saturday.
He said at least three people “overvoted” after the shades they placed on their preferred candidates smeared the adjacent ovals. The bleeding pens also smudged the surface of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines prompting Comelec to replace them. Another machine that was not accepting ballots was also replaced.
“But now we’re prepared and now we can check…if something’s wrong or not (on Election Day),” Brillantes said.
The said the cold weather in Hong Kong – 18 or 19 degrees Celsius -- might have caused the pens to bleed. “If there’s something wrong with the pen, (the bleeding) should happen all over the world. We’re using exactly the same pen,” he said.
Brillantes said voters can use ball pens as alternative. “Ballpen is acceptable and that has already been tested.”He advised voters to avoid putting too much pressure when shading the ballots to avoid the ink from going beyond the oval.
The election chief said 365 voters trooped to the Hong Kong voting centers on the first day of the absentee voting but the number climbed to almost 3000 on April 14, a Sunday, which is a non-working day in Hong Kong.
Automated elections are now under way in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The voting population in the six diplomatic posts total 297, 489.Other countries and diplomatic posts will implement either manual or postal voting.
Voting went smoothly in other countries, except in Jeddah, where voting startsonly today, April 16, due to the delay in the release of election paraphernalia from local customs, Brillantes said. Voting hours in Jeddah will be extended to compensate for the lost days.
The Overseas Absentee Voting will last until May 13. There are 737,759 overseas absentee voters who are expected to troop to the polling places this year.
