KORONADAL CITY(MindaNews/14 May)— Canvassing of votes by the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) in South Cotabato hit a snag Tuesday due to problems with the compact flash (CF) memory cards of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in five localities, an official said.
Duque Kadatuan, Commission on Elections supervisor for South Cotabato, declared a break shortly before 10 a.m. after revealing the results of the gubernatorial race from the town of Banga.
The gubernatorial race is being contested by incumbent Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr., Second District Rep. Daisy Avance Fuentes and former Koronadal City mayor Fernando Miguel.
Based on the results from Banga town, Fuentes (NPC) got 12,678 votes, Pingoy (UNA) received 10,266 and Miguel (Lakas) got 7,949 votes.
Results from Banga were 100 percent complete.
The other towns that also completed their transmission of votes were Norala, Sto. Nino, Surallah and Tampakan.
But the results from the four towns were not shown on the projector screen.
Kadatuan said the CF cards in the municipalities of Polomolok, Tupi, Tantangan and Lake Sebu and the component Koronadal City were having problems.
As of 2 p.m., the PBOC session has yet to reconvene. Kadatuan said they were expecting to resume the canvassing for the provincial bets at 3 p.m. today.
In Surallah town, the municipal board of canvassers (MBOC) proclaimed Vice Mayor Antonio Bendita the winning mayor.
In Tampakan town, reelectionist Mayor Leonardo Escobillo got 11,976 votes while his rival, former town mayor Claudius Barroso, received 6,927 votes.
Escobillo was proclaimed the winner by MBOC Tuesday morning.
Tampakan has a voting population of 24,134. It host the controversial copper-gold project of foreign-backed Sagittarius Mines, Inc.
Results from General Santos City, which is under Comelec-South Cotabato, have yet to be transmitted to the PBOC here as of 2 p.m.
The PBOC canvassing is being held at the session hall of the South Cotabato Sangguniang Panlalawigan. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)