The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has announced that as of 9:15 am today, sixty percent (60%) of 5170 precincts in the entire Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has already transmitted results of the elections.  

For Maguindanao, 95.2% of the total number of precincts has already transmitted poll results. It was followed by Shariff Kabunsuan with 91.01% and Basilan, 69.53%. The other provinces have slower transmission namely Lanao del Sur (52.67%), Tawi-Tawi, (39%) and Sulu with 27.07% as of 9:15am today.           

Vince Dizon, Spokesperson of Smartmatic-Sahi said “We are almost complete with the transmission of the elections results from Maguindanao. As of this morning, transmission in 17 municipalities has already been 100% completed while the rest have already reached the 95% level”.  

“Yesterday, the transmission started with some few glitches but were addressed immediately, so the speed has accelerated significantly after a few hours after the closing of the polls,” Dizon said.  

James Jimenez, Spokesman of COMELEC said that the transmission is expected to further speed up within the day.  

“The ARMM polls held yesterday showed us that the limited time for preparations did not hamper the smooth implementation of the automated elections,” Jimenez said.   

“Definitely, there are still many areas where we can improve the automated system as we prepare for the 2010 elections,” Jimenez added

*source: www.armm2008.gov.ph