Poll simulation exercise conducted: Mall voting in Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines — The mall voting simulation exercise in Cebu City last Saturday at Robinson’s Galleria for the upcoming barangay and SK elections was completed successfully and ended without any hitches.

The event, which was attended by at least 50 participants from Barangay Parian, one of the barangays in Cebu City that would have some of its precincts inside the mall, was done to gauge the readiness of the poll body to conduct elections outside the usual venues which are the public schools.

The SK and Barangay Elections process is going to be manual, where voters were given a ballot with a folder cover and would then insert it into two ballot boxes – one for the barangay and the other for the SK.

Indelible ink was also poured into the voters’ finger after they had casted their votes.

In an interview, the participants were happy to have casted their votes inside the mall because, aside from the convenience of voting in an air-conditioned and huge facility, they were able to go shopping after voting.

Not all barangays, however, can avail of mall voting because some clusters will still have the public schools as their polling centers.

Personnel of the Philippine National Police, particularly from the Cebu City Police Office and Armed Forces of the Philippines-Visayas Command, were also present during the simulation to give security and to maintain the peace and order.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday reported the need to reprint close to 2,000,000 ballots for the October 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).

Comelec Spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said a total of 1,778,917 official ballots are now reprinted at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.

Laudiangco said 1,317,483 reprinted ballots are for barangay polls while 461,434 for SK are for the SK elections.

About 491,153 ballots to be reprinted are for Maguindanao del Norte barangay polls and 181,030 for SK. For Maguindanao del Sur, 422,629 re-printed ballots are for the barangay and 158,813 for SK.

Last September 2022, the Comelec held a plebiscite in Maguindanao that resulted in the split into Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.

The Comelec is also re-printing 228,149 ballots for the village polls in the 10 barangays transferring to Taguig City and 67,716 for SK.

The Supreme Court previously ruled that the 10 barangays of Makati City, namely Pembo, Comembo, Cembo, South Cembo, West Rembo, East Rembo, Pitogo, Rizal, Northside, and Southside, are under the jurisdiction of Taguig City.

Laudiangco said replacement ballots will also be printed for the new city of Baliwag in Bulacan, particularly 111,356 for barangay and 35,718 for SK. This was after Baliwag residents voted to convert the municipality into a component city of Bulacan in a plebiscite conducted by the Comelec.

A total of 58,196 ballots for barangay elections and 18,157 for SK are to be re-printed for the new city of Carmona in Cavite, which was converted from a municipality to a city. — Mayen Jaymalin (FREEMAN)