Melo: Poll failure is pure fantasy

By Miriam Desacada (The Philippine Star)  

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=560789&publicationSubCategoryId=63

TACLOBAN CITY – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo yesterday reassured the public that a failure of elections on May 10 is “pure fantasy.”

“I am informing the public that there will be no failure of elections in May, that this (scenario) is purely fantasy as we have been preparing for this and we expect everything to turn out well with the use of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines,” Melo told a joint press conference of the Comelec, Armed Forces, Philippine National Police and the Department of Education after a meeting with local authorities here and the signing of a peace covenant with Eastern Visayas candidates.

Melo said they do not discount the possibility of having minor problems in the local levels but said these will certainly not be caused by glitches in the machines.

Melo also allayed fears that the rotating blackouts being experienced in some parts of the country may affect the results of the polls since the PCOS machines have batteries that may run until the end of voting time and the results will immediately be released.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento added that in case a PCOS machine breaks down, there are spare units that could be used.

Disclose nominees, party-list groups told

By Leila Salaverria (Philippine Daily Inquirer)  

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100322-260108/Disclose-nominees-party-list-groups-told

MANILA, Philippines—Nominees of party-list organizations, no matter how controversial they may be, should not hide behind their group’s name.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will promptly release the names of the nominees of all 187 party-list groups, according to its legal department director, Ferdinand Rafanan.

Each party-list group is required to submit to the Comelec the names of at least five nominees by March 26.

Rafanan said he would disclose the list of all nominees of the party-list groups the day after the deadline.

The immediate release of the names is expected to give those opposed to the nominees enough time to file disqualification cases against them.

But it’s not only the poll body which should be publicizing the names of the nominees, according to Rafanan.

The groups themselves are required to disclose their choices for representatives in Congress on their own campaign posters, banners and other paraphernalia.

Comelec resolution

“Once they’ve submitted the names, they should include these in their paraphernalia,” Rafanan reminded the party-list groups.

Comelec Resolution No. 8695, issued in November 2009, states: “The party-list parties, organizations or coalitions shall include the names of their nominees in all of their campaign materials.”

As Nograles goes to SC ; Comelec retreats, pledges ‘zombies’ purge

from The Daily Tribune

Link: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100313hed1.html

With the threat of a possible order from the Supreme Court for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to immediately purge the voters registration list containing double, multiple and dead voters that media have termed as “zombie” voters, following Speaker Prospero Nograles’ filing of a mandamus against the poll body, the Comelec yesterday hastily came up with Resolution 8791, resolving to “abate the other registration records of voters found to have double or multiple registration records as listed by the IT; direct the Board of Election inspectors not to allow these voters to vote in their respective precincts in the May 10, 2010 elections; delete the registration records of the voters in the next Election Registration Board (ERB) hearings; direct the Education and Information Department (EID) of the Commission on Elections to cause the publication of this Resolution in two daily newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines, and give it the widest dissemination; and direct the Election and Barangay Affairs Department in coordination with the ITD to implement this Resolution.

Asked by the Tribune to comment on the latest resolution, which appears to be the poll body’s reaction to his mandamus filed yesterday, Nograles, in a brief telephone interview said he is “giving the Commissioners the benefit of the doubt” in getting the zombie registrants delisted, but that his petition to the high court stays.