All systems go for May 9 polls: Comelec

MANILA – It’s all systems go for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections (NLE), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Thursday.

“We are all systems go. We are just waiting for the date of the elections. We have conducted final testing and sealing (FTS) and the problems we have already addressed,” Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said in a press briefing.

“We are 100 percent all set for May 9,” he added.

Casquejo said there are some 1,100 contingency vote counting machines (VCMs) and have established several repair hubs all over the country in the event that VCMs need to be replaced or repaired.

“Regarding our VCMs, we have eight repair hubs. If there are defective machines in Mindanao, they don’t have to bring them to Sta. Rosa, Laguna since we have three repair hubs in Mindanao located in Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City and Zamboanga; Visayas, we have two repair hubs in Cebu and Tacloban; in Luzon we have Sta. Rosa, we have Region 1 and National Capital Region (NCR),” Casquejo said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner George Garcia said the forthcoming polls are going to be historic.

“We have high expectations because of what we’ve seen in absentee voting. It’s going to be historic and a very memorable election. In a pandemic situation, we will elect a president,” he said.

“We are actually expecting a high voter turnout on election day. We are asking for your patience on May 9, the queue will be longer because of the health protocols. We hope that the number of voters will increase as the voting time will also be longer,” he added.