Bugs spoil dawn of computer age in RP polls 05/11/2010

Bugs spoil dawn of computer age in RP polls

05/11/2010 Presidential frontrunner Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III waited five hours in scorching heat to cast his vote yesterday as glitches tarnished the dawn of the computer age in the Philippines’ chaotic election system. A newly introduced ballot-reading machine broke down at a polling station in the province of Tarlac before he could cast his vote, forcing him to stay in queue until the problem was fixed. Elsewhere across the archipelago, a heavy turnout estimated at up to 85 percent of the 50 million eligible voters, coupled with unfamiliar technology, meant long queues at the height of the humid Philippine summer. “This should not have happened,” said Aquino, 50, who showed up at 9 a.m. at a polling station in the northern province of Tarlac where his mother’s family owns a vast sugar plantation. The senator is the son of late former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino and her assassinated husband, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., both of them revered leaders in the struggle to restore democracy, including “free and fair” elections..... MORE   Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100511nat1.html

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