• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A total of 170,011 voters in Negros Occidental were deactivated for their failure to vote in two successive elections, COMELEC records showed.
The highly urbanized Bacolod City logged the biggest number of deactivated voters with 24, 526.
Provincial Comelec supervisor Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria has called on the public to register through the satellite registrations in different towns and cities of Negros Occidental.
The voter registration period for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE) started Feb. 12 and will end Sept 30.
Ananoria said he is optimistic that they can register more new voters.
As of May 15, Negros Occidental has 19,268 new voters.
This brings the total number of registered voters in the province at 1,906,206, Comelec records further showed.
Meanwhile, the Comelec is preparing for the delivery of another batch of 20,000 automated counting machines (ACMs) from South Korea, which is expected in August.
Earlier this week, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said they are coordinating with the Bureau of Customs on the arrival of the machines, to be manufactured by service provider South Korean joint venture firm Miru Systems.
“We would also want to test the battery to know if it can stand the country’s hot weather, can it withstand a hot election day,” Garcia added.
On Tuesday, Garcia led the demonstration of the prototype of Miru’s ACMs before members of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP).
The poll body has reported that the 20 ACMs that were initially delivered from South Korea passed the Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT) on Monday, which was held at the poll body’s warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
All ACMs to be used for the 2025 midterm elections must undergo stringent accuracy testing, such as the HAT, before they can be officially received by the poll body.
The HAT involves unpacking each box, turning the ACM unit on, and running the different diagnostics to ensure that each and every component is working properly and meets the specifications and customizations as directed by Comelec.
The poll body added the diagnostic test results show that all ACM parts, such as the sensor, touchscreen, scanner, printer, camera, USB ports, LED, external keypad, among others, passed the appropriate criteria for each component during the HAT.
Some 100,000 ACMs will be manufactured by the South Korean firm for next year’s midterm elections. | GB/PNA
