SD card woes delay transmission of COCs from 3 foreign posts

The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the #NLE2019 resumes session at 2:00PM. pic.twitter.com/2O3xI5JLjz

— COMELEC (@COMELEC) May 19, 2019

MANILA — Three foreign posts encountered delays in transmitting the Certificate of Canvass (COC) for the mid-term elections due to SD card issues, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Sunday.

The Comelec en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), is still awaiting five COCs — one from Isabela and four from foreign posts.

Of these four, Comelec said the Philippine Embassies in Tokyo, Washington DC, and Riyadh encountered problems with corrupted SD cards.

“These countries are waiting for their SD cards. I cannot specifically explain for each country but it’s an SD card issue,” Frances Arabe, assistant director of the Comelec Education and Information Division, said in a presser.

Arabe said the replacement for the corrupted SD cards still have to come from Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Director Elaiza David of the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting revealed there were 64 defective SD cards out of the total 1,771 for overseas absentee voting.

“In Saudi Arabia, they already received the SD cards for Riyadh, Al Khobar, while Jeddah is still waiting for theirs. If they receive everything, Saudi might be able to transmit late this evening or tomorrow morning,” David told reporters.

“For US, we’re just waiting for one SD card for Los Angeles. For Japan, actually (the SD card replacement) is already at the FedEx. It’s just that FedEx is closed today, so they can’t get it,” she said.

As of 7 p.m. Sunday, the NBOC has canvassed 162 of the total 167 COCs.