SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao, May 9 (PNA) — Police and military authorities here are hunting down about 20 men who barged inside the Maguindanaon Elementary School and forcibly took at least 10 Vote Counting Machines in Barangay Katuli, Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao.

Senior Insp. Esmael Madin, the town police chief, said the men forcibly entered the school premises and took the election paraphernalia at about 6:00 a.m.

Estellita Orbase, acting election officer of Sultan Kudarat town, said election in Maguindanaon elementary school where about 700 voters are waiting as the polls are yet to start as of 9:30 a.m.

It was not clear whether or not soldiers or police officers were deployed to secure the voting center.

Bombings rocked Sultan Kudarat a week before election in an attempt by a particular political candidate to put the town under Comelec control and scare the teachers serving as board of election inspectors.

At least two public schools have been bombed in Sultan Kudarat and eight schools in adjacent Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao. (PNA)