The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Saturday, Feb. 25 that the new 7th District Representative may be proclaimed on Sunday morning, Feb. 26.
In an interview during the conduct of the special polls, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia noted how the voting process took only two to three minutes due to the Automated Elections System (AES) that the poll body employed.
Comelec stated that from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the official ballots from the Municipal and City Treasurer's Offices were distributed to all 426 clustered precincts in the 75 voting centers in the municipalities of Amadeo, Indang, and Tanza as well as the City of Trece Martires.
Voting was opened at 6 a.m. for the 355,184 registered voters of the 7th Legislative District of Cavite.
As of noon, Garcia stated that in cooperation with the Philippine National Police (PNP) they have not recorded any untoward incident.
On the other hand, based on the monitoring of the command center in Trece Martires, Garcia stated that all machines in all precincts worked smoothly as they have not encountered any machine malfunction.
According to Comelec spokesman Atty. John Rex Laudiangco, the poll body established as part of its enhanced continuity plan four technical hubs; one each for Amadeo, Indang, Tanza and Trece Martires, capabple of reconfiguring within one minute any SD card with may present issues. These technical hubs ensured that SD cards may be brought to its facilities and returned to the voting centers within five to 30 minutes.
It also deployed a 1:1 Vote Counting Machine (VCM) contingency on-site at the voting centers, enabling the respective electoral boards to replace and return to function any VCM, which has a technical issue, if any, within 10 minutes.
"Significantly, in all these procedures, the casting of votes will continue unhampered, without any delay or interruption, enabling voters on queue to personally feed their ballots in the VCM in less than 30 minutes from the implementation of the said contingency procedures and measures," Comelec said.
Pursuant to Comelec Resolution No. 10848, the poll body will be conducting a special election after the HOR passed a resolution declaring a vacancy in the 7th District of Cavite after Jesus Crispin Remulla assumed as Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Among the candidates is Remulla's son, Crispin Diego Diaz Remulla who will be running under the National Unity Party. Three others are Jose Angelito Domingo Aguinaldo, Melencio Loyola De Sagun, Jr., and Michael Angelo Bautista Santos who are all independent.
Similar to the May 2022 polls, the voting, counting, and canvassing of votes will be via the Automated Elections System, using the VCMs and the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS).