The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured Saturday there will be technicians in precincts who will respond to various situations that may arise during the country’s first automated elections on May 10.

The assignment of technicians to various precincts is part of the Comelec’s contingency measures to ensure that the voting and canvassing will not be hampered by technical or external glitches.

At least 51,799 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) technicians, 6,548 PCOS supervisors, and 2,315 canvassing technicians have been trained and hired by Smartmatic-TIM Corp.

Following the contingency plan, technicians will be prepared to act in the event of weather disturbances, power interruptions, machine and telecommunication breakdowns, and system interruptions.

There will be at least one PCOS technician per polling center, who will report to the PCOS supervisor. The supervisor will have jurisdiction over several clustered precincts.

The PCOS technician will also monitor the PCOS activities before, during, and after the voting.

The supervisor will periodically send reports to the Comelec-Smartmatic command center in Ortigas Center on the field situation and the responses made, if any.

There will also be technicians at the local and national canvassing centers to aid the canvassers in consolidating the count.

The technicians, however, can only approach the machines or the system if they are to be called by the Board of Election Inspector or the Board of Canvasser or a Comelec official.