Comelec shortens voting hours for 2016 polls

COMELEC Chairman Andres Bautista INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / ELOISA LOPEZ

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has set a 10-hour voting period for the national and local elections in May.

Comelec Chair Andres “Andy” Bautista, in a press briefing, said that the Comelec en banc has decided that voting hours during the elections on May 9 will be held 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Before, it’s 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” he said, referring to the voting hours during the 2013 elections. “But now because we were able to bring down the number of voters for each clustered precints from 1,000 to 800, we decided to change the voting hours.”

“As much as possible, we want to encourage our voters to go to the polling precincts early. We also know that the job of the board of election inspectors (BEIs) does not stop after the closing of the polling precincts. There’s a lot of work to be done after the casting of votes; that includes the transmission of the results,” Bautista said.

But he said that voters who are within the 30-meter radius of the polling precinct by 4:30 p.m. on May 9 will still be allowed to vote. Their names will then be recorded on a list by election officers.

Once the list has been finalized, no one would then be accommodated to vote.