CEBU, Philippines - Longer lines may be encountered in precincts during the upcoming May 2013 elections.
This because the Commission on Elections (Comelec) opted to remove the use of priority numbers in polling places to shy away from speculations that there is bias even in the numbers given to voters.
Atty. Ferdinand Gujilde, election officer IV detailed in the Office of the Provincial Election Supervisor, said that the Comelec decided not to use priority numbers during the election day since for the past elections, voters complained that the giving out of numbers would depend on who the voter would be supporting.
Gujilde said that priority numbers were used to control the crowd but since these speculations were hounding elections, Comelec decided to scrap it.
He admitted, though, that this would mean voters would have to line up instead of wait for their turn. He added that this can be a concern especially in Cebu which has the most number of registered voters among all provinces in the country.
But he said that they would just have to compromise to make things easier like for the Person’s with Disabilities, pregnant women and senior citizens.
For each polling area, Gujilde explained that while ten voters are allowed to go inside at a time, five out of the ten would be for PWD’s, pregnant women and senior citizens.
Gujilde said that voters should also check early where their polling areas are to save time.
Precinct Certified Voters Lists are already being printed, said Gujilde, which would be found in polling areas during the election day as a guide to the voters. Members of the Cebu-Citizens Involvement and Maturation in People’s Empowerment and Liberation Foundation Inc. (C-CIMPEL) will help voters find their polling areas too by putting up tables in every precinct where voters can approach them and ask for their assigned polling area.
Gujilde said that allegations by voters that politics is behind the reason why their names have been taken out from the list have never been proven and are merely speculations.
“There are only two reasons why voters cannot find their names. One, they have been deactivated from the records. Or two, wala lang gyud sila katultol sa polling precinct nila.â€
He said that since voters have been used to clustering, they are not aware that their names were transferred to another polling precinct and would not be the same in the past election.
This is why it is important to check names and polling precincts in advance, said Gujilde.
He said that apart from their website where the voters can already check their assigned polling precincts, they can also inquire from field officers in their respective areas.
Also, Gujilde said that they will be including all the needed information, especially the changes like that of the use of priority numbers, in the voters information sheet that would be given prior to the election day.
This would also include names of candidates to guide voters.
At the Comelec regional office, the director is asking the public to step up and file a complaint.
Comelec 7 Director Temie Lambino made this call to the general public amid reports of alleged campaign violations from different political parties, local and national. (FREEMAN)