2022 ELECTIONS | Philippines to create measures to ensure transparency in general elections

May 14, 2021 , 09:54 PM

(May 14, 2021) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will impose measures to ensure transparency in the national and local elections next year, an election commissioner said on Friday, promising to avoid a repeat of the glitch that had occurred in the last midterm elections.

Marlon Casquejo said the electoral boards assigned in each precinct will have digital signatures to validate the transmission of votes from the machines to the canvassing centers, adding a layer of security to the election system.

Voters’ receipts will also be immediately released right after the insertion of ballots into the vote counting machines, according to Casquejo, which poll watchdogs can also use to validate the entry of votes real-time.

“Any watchdog can do their own quick count or, shall we say, audit using the voters’ receipt—that is to be more transparent,” Casquejo told reporters in a media briefing.

Comelec officials have started preparations for the May 2022 presidential elections in the face of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The poll body said it wanted to strike a balance between people’s democratic right to vote while ensuring their safety from the virus.

Executive Director Bartolome Sinocruz Jr. said the elections commission also wanted to modify the guidelines for the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) in October so as to reduce the risk of virus transmission.

But the body was still undecided if politicians should be required to submit to a negative COVID-19 test before filing their COC.

About 18,167 elective positions will be filled in the next year’s elections and more than 60 million people will cast ballots.

“Comelec is now contemplating allocating the filing dates by position,” Sinocruz said. “There will be a certain number of days for single elective positions, and several days for multi-elective positions. [We may] also limit the number of persons that can file the COCs [per day] and the number of persons that can accompany them.”

Comelec also wanted to impose modified campaign rules, studying different options done by other countries in conducting electoral campaigns.

They were also trying to fix the rules for senior citizens, pregnant women, as well as people with co-morbidities in order to provide them with enough safeguards in polling precincts during the election day.

Commissioner Aimee Ampoloquio said all these matters will be discussed in the upcoming meetings of the poll body before publishing a new set of guidelines.

“We will see if we can do that as we progress,” Ampoloquio said. “Titingnan natin kung ano nangyayari sa ibang bansa. If it is not advisable for the candidates to go on face-to-face campaign, we may limit or introduce some other forms of campaign.”

Campaign period for national positions would be from February 8, 2022 to May 7, 2022, while local positions would be from March 25, 2022 to May 7, 2022.

Voter’s registration, on the other hand, will end on September 30.

(Beatrice Puente/MM)

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