Local absentee voting starts Sunday

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Local absentee voters—like soldiers, teachers and members of the media—may cast their ballots beginning Sunday, Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Saturday.

Brillantes urged the nearly 19,000 registered local absentee voters, who include 575 media practitioners, to come to the special voting centers set up for them between Sunday and April 30.

“Those who were able to register for the local absentee voting should go vote. If not, they could still vote on Election Day but they might have a hard time,” said Brillantes in an interview.

“My reminder is for them to take advantage of the early voting,” he said.

Comelec records showed a total of 18,907 registered local absentee voters. They include media practitioners, soldiers, teachers and government officials who would be busy on Election Day performing poll duties and would not have time to vote.

In Manila, the special voting center is at the Comelec National Capital Region office in Intramuros. In the provinces, the centers are at the offices of the regional election director or provincial election supervisor. The media may vote at the Comelec offices where they are registered, while soldiers and government officials may do so at polling places identified by their commanders and supervisors. Voting is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Brillantes said.

He said the LAV is not automated so the voters would have to write down the names of their candidates on the official ballots.

He said local absentee voters would be electing only the national candidates, which means the 12 senators and one party-list group.—Philip C. Tubeza