MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will adopt the “early voting hours” policy nationwide for the 2025 midterm and Bangsamoro parliamentary polls.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the policy was approved after its successful pilot testing in last year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, although early voting will not be made mandatory for the vulnerable sectors.
“Come the 2025 elections, we will already allow the elderly, persons with disability and pregnant women nationwide to vote exclusively between 5 a.m. until 7 a.m.,” Garcia said in a radio interview.
He said the Comelec continues to wait for the passage of the proposed law for early voting.
“But it has not been passed yet. So this will be the way of the Comelec, the early voting hours,” Garcia said.
The Comelec chief said the early voting hours would benefit the vulnerable sectors since they would not have to cast their votes at the same time as the general population.
“They will greatly benefit from this since the weather is not yet hot outside and there are not too many people in the polling precincts yet,” Garcia said.
According to Garcia, the benefits were seen during the pilot testing in 2023, with senior citizens lining up to vote as early as 3 a.m.
During the 2023 polls, the vulnerable sectors in Naga City and Muntinlupa City were allowed to vote between 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. The pilot test came amid the proposed measure in Congress to provide qualified senior citizens, persons with disability, lawyers and health workers with separate voting days before election day.