A few weeks before the elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) raised issues about the reliability of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
The PCOS machines will be used in collating and counting the election returns. There was a mock election held last February 2 and Namfrel observers witnessed glitches in 17 out of 20 locations. One of the common problems was “ballot rejection”.
Namfrel wanted assurance that a Plan B was in place if these problems occurred. According to reports, some instances were due to weak cellphone signals and the PCOS machines had to be placed in an area where the signal was strong in order to restart the machine.
