No more shopping, movies after voting

Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman Andres Bautista INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Senior citizens and persons with disabilities had better brace themselves for the heat and the crowd on election day, as the  Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday scrapped its earlier decision to allow mall voting.

“I was really looking forward to voting in the mall,” said Josefina Makasakit, 69, and a resident of Makati City. “It would have been more convenient for senior citizens like me because malls are airconditioned and they’re not too crowded.”

Added Rosita Tumabini, 68,  who walks with crutches because one of her legs had been amputated following complications from diabetes: “It was a breeze when I registered as a voter at the mall. I hope the Comelec reconsiders its decision and be more considerate of our physical condition.”

Voting 4-3, the Comelec  decided “not to proceed with mall voting for the 2016 elections,” Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said yesterday, adding that three commissioners had changed their minds over its feasibility.

Legality

Former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal had earlier questioned the legality of the mall voting project, saying that the Comelec memorandum violated some provisions of the Omnibus Election Code, which does not allow the transfer of polling precincts within 45 days before a regular election.

Larrazabal said the transfer of polling places “barely 19 days before election day (on May 9),” is in violation of the foregoing prohibition in Section 153 of the Omnibus Election Code.

“It’s a good thing  the Comelec en banc resolved the issue because procedurally, mall voting does not comply with the requirements of the law,” the former commissioner said in a text message to the Inquirer.

Bautista explained that the Comelec’s reversal of its earlier decision on mall voting came after Commissioners Christian Lim, Luie Guia and Arthur Lim decided to join in the dissenting opinion of Commissioner Rowena Guanzon.

Bautista had favored mall voting, along with Commissioners Al Parreño and Sheriff Abas.

Efforts wasted

In a press briefing yesterday, Bautista explained that “the interpretation is whether or not the approval and the transfer should have happened 45 days before the elections. What we discussed was that the approval happened on March 10, which was 60 days before the elections but the other [commissioners] were saying that the precincts should have been transferred (by now) to the malls. Come to think of it, the transfer happens on Election Day itself.”

The scrapping of his own pet project made him feel that “our efforts were wasted,” Bautista said. “But we have to move on,” he said, adding that the decision came after the Comelec had already started sending out voter information sheets (VIS) to some of the 231,174 regular voters, who would have benefited from the mall voting project.

‘Undo it’

“But now we have to undo it,” the Comelec chief said. “If this is the decision, we have to live with it.”

Bautista also apologized to voters who had supported the proposal. “We apologize to our voters who were already informed of their transfer to malls.  We are now in the process of informing them of their new voting areas. Basically, we will just return them to their old polling precincts.”

Apology to mall partners

He added: “We also apologize to our mall partners because we know they have already spent for this project. They were also excited [about] this partnership as part of their corporate social responsibility.”

The Comelec will try to push for mall voting in the next elections, Bautista added.