By VERA Files CALLING emergency accessible polling places (EAPPs) “a mere band-aid solution,” a poll watchdog has scored the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for failing to do enough to accommodate vulnerable voters. The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) said many persons with disabilities (PWDs), senior citizens, pregnant women and indigenous communities were disenfranchised because

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL and VERLIE Q. RETULIN PRESIDENTIAL candidate Rodrigo Duterte is leading by a wide margin in an elections with the fastest transmission rate in the country’s history of automated polls. At 10:40 p.m., 75.38 percent of polling precincts have already transmitted election returns said poll chief Andres Bautista. Though the Commission on

By VERA Files AS Monday drew to a close, the Commission on Elections proclaimed the conduct of the polls to be generally smooth. The experiences of voters on the ground, however, stand in sharp contrast to the assessment, especially as regards vote-counting machines (VCMs), which in many areas throughout the day had had many malfunctions.