The country has a new president in the person of Dr. Jose Rizal. Rizal bested other “presidential candidates” such as Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in the nationwide mock elections conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Saturday.

The country’s national hero obtained the highest number of votes of 118 for president.

The Board of Canvassers also proclaimed Marcelo Del Pilar as the winning vice president, garnering 76 votes.

For senator, Benigno Q. Aquino obtained the highest number of votes with 214, followed by Benigno Aquino Jr. with 208.

The 10 other winning senators are: Corazon C. Aquino, 193; Epifanio C. De Los Santos, 183; Robert Z. Barbers, 171; Pio C. Del Pilar, 161; Juan C. Felipe, 154; Francisco S. Dagohoy, 153; Regidor R. Dela Rosa, 152; Macario S. De Leon, 151; Mariano C. Alvarez, 150; and Felipe E. Agoncillo, 147.

The winning party-list groups are: Bamboo, 21; Manomano, 19; Apo Hiking Society, 19; 14K, 16; Maria Cafra, 13; MYMP, 13; Natural Born, 10; Aegis, 9; Mi Ultimo Adios, 9; Bukas Palad, 7; El Filibusterismo, 7; Pinay, 6; Mocha Girls, 6; Men Oppose, 6; Parokya ni Edgar, 6; Mastaplann, 5; and Banyuhay.

Meanwhile, out of the nine polling precincts that participated in the mock polls Saturday the first to transmit the results was Bulacao Community School in Cebu at 9:08 a.m., while the last to transmit was the Maharlika Elementary School in Taguig City at 11:11 a.m.

The mock polls were also held at the New Era Elementary School in Tandang Sora, Quezon City; Gen. Ricardo Papa Memorial High School in Taguig City; Pines City National High School and the Community Youth Center in Baguio City; Mabini Elementary School in Cebu City; Alejandra Navarro Elementary School, and Generoso Elementary School in Davao City.

‘Paper jam’ halts Taguig mock polls
As this developed, a “paper jam” and not the much-feared “signal jam” temporarily delayed the voting procedure at Maharlika Elementary School in Taguig during the mock automated elections Saturday.

Lawyer Juliet Villar, election officer, said that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine being used at the school “hanged” after the 41st voter fed his ballot into the apparatus.

The interruption occurred at around 10 a.m. or two hours after voting started. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was aiming to let 50 locally registered voters to cast their votes.

Dr. Arwin Serrano of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPRCV), who oversaw the process, said that the problem ballot came from someone who did not mark it properly.

“Tinuldukan lang niya yung oval na dapat i-shade kaya hindi mabasa yung balota,” explained Serrano. (“He merely put a period in the oval that had to be shaded that’s why the ballot couldn’t be read.”)

To avoid the same incident during the May 10 elections, the Comelec said it will hold improved voter education in the coming days.

After three tries to run the particular ballot into the PCOS machine, the machine halted working altogether, with the words “paper jam” displayed on the screen. The machine was made operational again after nearly 30 minutes.

Ballot from another person had earlier been rejected by the PCOS, this time because of shading outside of the oval.

For his part, Serrano said that the mock election helped determine possible hitches in the process of automation. “What’s good about this is that we’ll know how to solve these problems come Election Day.”

The transmission of vote results from the precinct to the Taguig City Hall, central server (Comelec main office), and media entities (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas or KBP) went smoothly as compared to scattered transmission tests conducted last month.

At Maharlika, the whole transmission process lasted a total of five minutes, with only one reported case of failed sending, the Manila Bulletin learned.

Meanwhile, it took under four minutes to send the canvassed results from Gen. Ricardo Papa Memorial High School also in Taguig where another mock poll was held.

Mock voting at Gen. Ricardo Papa, which involved 50 residents of Barangay Tuktukan, was finished in one hour as there were no reported difficulties.

In Quezon City, there were only minor hitches encountered.

Forty-six of the 50 ballots cast at the New Era Elementary School in Barangay New Era, Constitution Hills, were transmitted to the Comelec board of city canvassers at the Albert Hall of the Quezon City Hall.

But one voter’s ballot was rejected by the PCOS machine after he was unable to shade legibly the portion across the name of his choice candidate.

Jimer Manglicmot, a staff of one of the congressional candidates in the third district of Quezon City, said voters must be careful not to crumple or put unnecessary marks on the 26-inch ballot sheet to avoid their votes from being invalidated.

Luz Divina Tindugan, the first voter who cast her vote in the mock election, said the new election method is a lot easier since it only requires the electorate to shade and not write the names of the candidates.

In Davao City, not a single hitch was encountered during the mock election.

The “trial-and-error” election started at 8 a.m. in the precincts of Alejandra Navarro Elementary School with 879 voters and Generoso Elementary School, Bago Aplaya, with 856 voters.

“It was fast one – and I did not have any hard time to fill out the ballot,” Jade Zaldivar, one of the reporters who participated and covered the mock election told the Manila Bulletin. (With reports from Chito A. Chavez and Mick M. Basa)

MB Online surveys reliability of poll automation
Meanwhile, the Manila Bulletin Online has just put up its latest survey asking web visitors about their thoughts on the upcoming poll automation this May.

As of 5:30 p.m. of February 06, 2010, the poll has already logged a total of 1,186 votes, with 69 percent of participants saying that they can trust the automation of this year's election (more than the conduct of manual elections) and 31 percent expressing doubts on the trustworthiness of the procedure.