The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Negros Oriental has set a series of training for technicians and teachers comprising the electoral board on the use of the vote counting machines (VCMs) in preparation for the May 9 national and local polls.

Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec’s provincial election supervisor-designate of Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency on Tuesday that the training for technicians will be from February 21 to 27.

For the electoral board (formerly known as the board of election inspectors), the training will be held on March 7-29, he said.

The chairman and poll clerk of each electoral board will be required to attend the training, he added.

Castillano also said technicians will be “limited only to trouble-shooting problems with the machines but have nothing to do with the SD cards”.

The Comelec has already trained the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to cascade the training on VCM use, together with Comelec trainers through webinars, although the machines have yet to be deployed here, he said.

“It will still be a live-in seminar/training but participants will be required to undergo antigen testing” for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), he added.

The venue(s) for the VCM training will still have to be finalized soon, Castillano said. (PNA)