May 9 voting day has, not surprisingly, gone off with many a hitch-to put it very lightly.
As of 7:30 p.m., half an hour after the scheduled end of voting, precincts across the nation are still full with many folks-candidates included-calling for COMELEC to extend votation.
And it seems it's not just the general public that's had enough. Veteran journalists Karen Davila and Mel Tiangco are currently trending on Twitter-alongside the #ExtendVotingHoursPH-after they questioned the Commission on Elections and their refusal to put a foot down on whether or not to extend the voting time.
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In an interview with Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner George Garcia during TV Patrol, Davila straight-up asked the question on everyone's minds:
"Ano ba ang kakailanganin para ang COMELEC en banc ay mag-desisyon na i-extend; dalawang oras lang naman po ang hinihingi."
A quick peek at Twitter shows precincts still full of citizens waiting to either fill-up their ballots or wait for their cluster's vote-counting machine to finally be okay so they can submit their votes themselves.
"Mind you, commissioner, hindi kasalanan ng pandemya kung bakit ganito ang pila," Davila reiterated, adding that it was the faulty VCM machines at precincts holding up the lines.
"Paano naging kasalanan ng tao 'yon, at paano naging kasalanan ng pandemya 'yon?" she said, before adding another "What will it take?"
The broadcaster has also taken to her own Twitter account to call for COMELEC to be accountable for today's mishaps.
Mel Tiangco and her coverage of the day's events on GMA have been peppered with commentary on COMELEC and their VCMs—particularly on the poll body's slow response to troubles.
Mel pointed out that it is no excuse that the VCMs are more than decades-old because COMELEC was supposed to have done a test-run on the machines prior to election day.
Twitter, meanwhile, has been all over the two reportages—and with the fire the two brought at the height of what was supposed to be the end of voting, it's no surprise.
From folks declaring them queens to more calls for COMELEC to step up, check out the spiciest tweets below.
