ILOILO City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) urged Panay Electric Company (PECO) to ensure a steady supply of power today – the election day for new barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials.
PECO is the sole power distributor in this city.
“We expect the whole election process to last until midnight,” said Atty. Reiner Layson, city election officer.
Today’s elections are not automated but manual. Voters have to write the names of their chosen candidates on official ballots and the board of election inspectors will manually count the votes for each candidate for barangay captain, barangay councilman, SK chairman and SK councilor.
PECO has moved all scheduled brownouts today to other dates, Corporate Communication Officer Mikel Afzelius said.
Troubleshooters and additional teams are on standby for dispatch in case of an unexpected power interruption, Afzelius said.
PECO is working with its major supplier, Panay Energy Development Corp., to make sure there will be no power outage, he said.
PEDC has not scheduled any power maintenance activity this election day either, Afzelius added.
Layson said voting precincts open at 7 a.m. today and voting ends at 3 p.m.
The counting of votes begins after the voting ends.
After the counting, Layson said, the board of election inspectors in each precinct would prepare the election returns for submission to the Barangay Election Board of Canvassers that, in return, would canvass the votes.
After the canvassing of votes, the board of canvassers would prepare the statement of votes, certificate of canvass and proclaim the winners.
“Expected naton nga maabtan kita sang dulom,” said Layson.
There are a total of 62 polling precincts for 180 barangays in Iloilo City.
Layson said the city Comelec made sure these precincts have provisions for the board of election inspectors to work unhampered even at night./PN
