MANILA, Philippines?Voting in the May 10 elections will be extended by three hours to accommodate a large numbers of voters in the clustered precincts, the Comelec said.

Under the General Instructions released by the poll body, voting precincts will open at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. instead of 3 p.m., stretching the voting period to 11 hours.

If there are still people in the queues, election workers are mandated to extend the voting hours even longer.

?If at six o?clock there are still voters within thirty meters in front of the polling place who have not yet cast their votes, voting shall continue but only to allow said voters to cast their votes without interruption,? the Comelec said.

The poll clerk is tasked to list the names of those voters, who will be called thrice. ?Any voter in the list who is not present when called shall not be allowed to vote at a later time,? the poll body warned.

According to officials and contract terms, the over 340,000 precincts nationwide will be reduced to 80,000 by three to five preceincts into just one voting cell , depending on the size of a municipality?s population. The Comelec said it expects that one clustered precinct will have 1,000 voters.

In past elections, where voting and counting were done manually, there were about 200 voters in each precinct.

The Comelec clustered the precincts to save on costs of leasing the ballot scanning and vote counting machines.

Meanwhile, the poll body said watchers from political parties, candidates, and election watchdogs will be allowed to observe and record the proceedings inside the voting centers.

?Each candidate and registered political party or coalition of political parties duly registered with the Commission and fielding candidates in the election, as well as duly accredited citizens? arms may appoint two watchers, to serve alternately in every polling place,? the Comelec said.

Candidates for senator and other positions are not allowed to watchers. The Comelec said these candidates who belong to one slate are ?collectively? entitled to one observer.

Watchers from the dominant minority and majority parties and the observers from the Comelec?s accredited arm will be given preference inside the polling precinct.

These watchers are entitled to question or protest the proceedings of the Board of Election Inspectors. At the end of the day, they will affix their signature or thumb print to the election returns that will be printed by the voting and counting machines.