THE United Nationalist Alliance on Thursday expressed fears the Commission on Elections would suspend the May elections because of the delays in the printing schedule and the glitches in the source codes of ballots.
“There are enough reasons for the Comelec to invoke its powers to suspend the national and local elections, such as the delays in printing, the case against Senator Grace Poe and the petitions to stop the reuse of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines in this year’s balloting,” UNA spokesman Mon Ilagan said.
He hoped the delays were not deliberate for the Comelec to implore Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code, which empowers it to delay the elections within 30 days following a postponement of the elections.
“We hope that these issues and concerns being raised in relation to the delays and glitches will not be used as reasons to allow the Comelec to invoke their power to suspend the polls or force them to go back to manual voting,” Ilagan said.
The Comelec has already hinted that some PCOS machines were malfunctioning and failing to correctly read the ballots, which might have been the result of a glitch in the source code.
The National Movement for Free Elections had earlier said the Comelec was already behind schedule in the printing of the ballots. The delay and other technical problems might force the Comelec to suspend the elections in selected regions or localities.
“We pray and hope that it will be an honest, fair and clean elections in the coming May 9. Unfortunately, the reports of the delays, deliberate or not, are a cause for alarm,” Ilagan said.
“We should not allow sinister parties to manipulate the elections, and the Comelec must see beyond these delays and glitches and probe if there are quarters from within who are present to influence and exploit the situation.
“It is within the mandate of the Comelec to make sure that the conduct of the elections is fair, credible, honest, orderly and peaceful. The term of President Aquino will be ending in a few months, and this would be the best legacy he could leave behind.”