MANILA, Philippines - The Board of Canvassers for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections resumed its session Tuesday in Manila, as more municipalities in the ARMM region have transmitted their respective election results.
As of 10 a.m., 99 percent of municipalities in Maguindanao province have transmitted their election results to the ARMM BOC; Shariff Kabunsuan, 91 percent; Basilan, 69.32 percent; Lanao del Sur, 52 percent; Tawi-Tawi, 39 percent; and Sulu, 26.9 percent.
On Monday evening, the Comelec said it would not be releasing partial results of the ARMM polls to "avoid trending."
"We don't release partial results as a matter of policy. We want to avoid any appearance of trending," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said.
Jimenez said Maguindanao was fast in transmitting its results as it used the DRE or Direct Recording Electronic by technology provider Smartmatic-Sahi Joint Venture.
DRE uses touch-screen technology wherein the voter would simply press the part of the screen containing the candidate's name.
Smarmatic-Sahi is also tasked to handle the transmission and canvassing of votes in the whole ARMM.
The other technology, Optical Mark Reader (OMR) of Avante International Technology Inc., was used in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi. OMR uses a ballot system. The ballot contains the candidates' names and the voter simply shades the space corresponding to the chosen candidate.
The BOC had said that it expects to proclaim the winning gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial candidates by Wednesday. The winning regional assemblymen will be proclaimed in their respective provinces.
The ARMM has a total of 1,516,775 registered voters. - Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV