The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday encouraged election stakeholders to monitor the ongoing final testing and sealing (FTS) of the automated counting machines (ACMs) that will be used in the May 12 elections.

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said it is important for the public, election watchdogs and political parties to observe the FTS that will be conducted May 2 to 7.

“That’s why I hope the people, political parties, take advantage of the FTS. Don’t ignore it. If in the past its importance was not emphasized, now we want to be transparent,” Garcia said in an interview at the start of the FTS at Pateros Elementary School.

“I hope throughout the Philippines, they can send people to every precinct so they can see how our EBM (Election Board Member) is doing, [the] teachers, as they operate, repair, and open the machine. They have undergone a long training,” he added.

Garcia advised the public to visit its website for the schedule of FTS in all regions.

During the FTS, there will be an end-to-end test of the voting process — from the initialization of the machine to the voting of at least 10 persons (randomly selected among those present), to the feeding of the accomplished ballots to the machine, and finally to the printing of election returns.

Garcia assured the public that they are prepared to hold the elections.

“We are almost ready to hold the polls. Our teachers are also ready even though the classrooms are small, we are ready to hold the election,” Garcia said as he urged registered voters to “vote with a purpose.”

He asked national and local candidates to include in their last days of campaign activities a call for voters to participate in the elections.

“To our candidates, since it is the last 10 days and you have sufficiently introduced yourselves, let us just encourage the people to vote on election day,” he said.

Based on Comelec data, there are a total of 68,431,965 registered voters for the midterm polls. (PNA)