Over 316,000 Aklan voters to troop in May polls

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

The testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the polling precincts were conducted on Saturday at the Kalibo Pilot Elementary School in Barangay Poblacion, Kalibo, Aklan. Lower photo showed the test ballots for the mock elections / PHOTOS BY BOY RYAN ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – About 316,000 registered voters will troop to 492 clustered precincts in the province of Aklan to cast their votes on May 10 for the synchronized automated national and local elections.

The capital town of Kalibo has the most number of voters with 46,375 followed by Ibajay with 25,390 voters, New Washington (23,833), Banga (23,021), Malay (22,735), Batan (18,838), Numancia (18,632) and Balete (17,073).

Nabas has 16,236 voters, Makato with 16,114, Libacao (15,611), Altavas (14,806), Malinao (14,427), Tangalan (11,849), Madalag (11,601), Buruanga (11,128) and Lezo with 8,371 voters.

Kalibo has also the most number of clustered precincts with 57 followed by Ibajay with 45, Banga and Malay with 35 precincts each and New Washington with 33.
On election day, each clustered precinct accommodates a maximum of 1,000 registered voters.

If there still be voters beyond 6 p.m. or after the 11-hour voting period, they would still be accommodated as long as they are lined up within 30 meters from the polling precinct.
Each voter is allowed between 7-8 minutes to vote for the positions of president, vice president, 12 senators, party-list representative, congressman, governor, sangguniang panlalawigan members, vice governor, mayor, vice mayor and councilors.

A total of 492 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines supplied by the joint venture of Smartmatic and Total Information Management (TIM) were delivered to 329 polling centers throughout the province, according to provincial coordinator Melrose Lunn.

She said the testing and sealing of PCOS machines by the three-member Board of Election Inspectors were conducted with the reconfigured compact flash cards in time for the May 10 election.

In the final testing and sealing, ten voters accomplished the test ballots who also personally feed the ballot into the PCOS machine. After the ten voters have voted, the PCOS automatically count the votes and printed copies of local returns.

The BEI also retrieved the test ballots from the ballot box and manually count the votes by accomplishing the election returns. In the manual counting of votes, the chairman verified the ballots and compared the results of manually-prepared election return with the machine-generated election return if there was over-voting or discrepancy.

Meanwhile, only 17 inmates who are detained a the Aklan provincial jail in Barangay Nalook under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) are expected to vote on Monday.
The inmates, mostly from the capital town of Kalibo, will be escorted to polling precincts by the jail guards where they will cast their votes.