By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora
MANILA – The long voting queues early in the morning of May 12 are a “positive” indication that Filipinos were eager to vote for this year’s national and local elections, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said.
In an interview Monday afternoon, PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said the group observed long queues of voters up until 8 a.m., which was “different” from the conduct of past polls.
“In the past years, malimit lang magka-pila sa umaga. Sa hapon, between 2 to 4 p.m. ang haba ng pila. But now, people came out early (it was rare to see lines early in the morning. Usually, the long lines start between 2 and 4 p.m. But now, people came out early),” she said.
“So, that’s telling us, excited ang Pilipinas bumoto. That part we think is very encouraging na maagang lumabas ang mga tao, maagang silang nagboto (the Philippines is excited to vote. That part, we think, is very encouraging that people were early to cast their votes).”
Singson also commended the Commission on Elections for its effort to ensure transparency on Election Day.
“We think there was really a strong effort at transparency with the leadership of our elections. Ngayon, diretso nang mag-transmit mula sa automated counting machine sa mismong server namin (Now, the automated counting machines directly transmit to our servers),” she said.
By 7:30 p.m. on May 12, the initial partial and unofficial election results will start coming in, Singson said.
“We’re thinking that maybe the first results will come in at 7:30 p.m., and we’re anticipating na siguro mas mabilis ang halalan ngayon (maybe the elections would be faster this time),” she said.
Singson expects that areas previously slow to transmit results would be able to do so earlier this year with the advent of the 5G network technology and the deployment of Starlink satellite transmission devices. (PNA)
