The Commission on Elections of the Philippines stated on the 5th that despite technical malfunctions in some optical scan vote-counting machines during testing, which led to suggestions to postpone the general election originally scheduled for the 10th of this month, the Commission has decided to proceed with the election as planned.
Commission on Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said at a press briefing held at noon that day: "We guarantee that the automated election will be held as scheduled on May 10th."
Larrazabal made this statement in response to requests from some politicians and lawyers to postpone the general election. After technical malfunctions occurred during testing of some optical scan vote-counting machines used for the national and local elections in the Philippines, some politicians and Romulo Macalintal, a lawyer for Philippine President Arroyo, suggested on the 4th that the Commission on Elections postpone the voting date by 15 days.
However, Gary Olivar, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson for Philippine President Arroyo, said on the 5th that the words of the President's lawyer, Macalintal, do not represent the President but only himself, and that the President believes the decision on whether to postpone the election rests with the Commission on Elections.
Additionally, according to a representative of the supplier of the optical scan vote-counting machines used for this election, their technicians have identified the cause of the malfunctions and plan to replace the memory cards in all 80,000 machines. All work can be completed by the 9th, thereby ensuring that the first automated election in Philippine history proceeds as scheduled.
The Philippines will hold presidential and local elections on May 10th. Approximately 50 million voters will elect the next president, vice president, 12 senators, about 300 members of the House of Representatives, and 17,000 local officials.
