Comelec turns to Cebu City gov’t for better equipment in district offices

Cebu City residents wait in line for their turn to be registered as a city voter at the Commission on Elections in Cebu City at the start of the voter’s registration on August 1. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Commission on Elections (Comelec) is seeking support from the Cebu City local government unit (LGU) to help improve the two district offices.

Lawyer Marchel Sarno, South District election officer, said that the offices had defective air-conditioning units and outdated computers, which would affect the services provided by the Comelec to the voters especially during the registration period from August 1 to September 30, 2019.

Sarno said they had already asked for procurements of new air-conditioning units and updated computers and they were hoping for them to arrive as soon as possible.

”Naa na tay budget dugay-dugay na. Ang time na lang to procure. We are waiting for the procurement, and we would like the Cebu City government for the support,” said Sarno.

The two Comelec offices in Cebu City cater to at least 500 registrants a day per district and Sarno said they would want to offer a comfortable space for them.

He said that the voters should have a pleasant client-experience in the Comelec as this had been the thrust of President Rodrigo Duterte to provide a smoother processing in all government offices.

Read more: Technical issues cause Comelec Cebu City to serve fewer 1st day voter’s registrants

The updated computers are urgently needed as the new system updates on the software applications being used by the Comelec for this registration because installing the update have slowed down the old office computers.

On the first day of the voter’s registration on August 1, the Comelec Cebu City had to limit the new applicants to 200 a day due to the delay caused by the updating of the system.

Read more: Comelec: Voter registration period set Aug. 1 to Sept. 30

Technicians had to administer the update because the outdated computers could not handle the update.

Sarno said that the system was expected to be up and running by the second week of August, but there would not have been a delay if they had updated computers.

This year’s registration would take only two months in preparation for the scheduled 2020 barangay elections and the Comelec caters to both Sangguniang Kabataan and regular voters.

However, he said if the Congress would decide to move the election to 2022, the registration might be extended up until next year./dbs