Comelec extends deadline for local absentee voting from March 7 to March 31

A woman casts her votes as Commission on Elections Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista looks on during mock elections aimed at testing the Precinct Automated Tallying System (PATAS) proposed by former Commissioner Augusto Lagman and other IT experts organizations held at Bacoor National High School Annex in Poblacion, Barangay Tabing-Dagat, Bacoor, Cavite on Saturday (PNA photo by Avito C.Dalan)

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has extended the deadline for the application for the local absentee voting (LAV) from March 7 to March 31.

Comelec – Committee on Local Absentee Voting (CLAV) Chairperson Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the commission en banc decided to extend the deadline until the end of the month.

“Comelec En Banc moved the deadline of application for local absentee voting to March 31,” she said in her Twitter account (@commrguanzon).

The decision to extend was due to their desire to enable more qualified voters to avail of the LAV.

“Because we only have more than 6,000 applicants and we have to give other time to apply,” said Guanzon.

With this, she reported that there have been no members of the media that have applied so far.

“As of March 2, 2016, no one from the media applied for local absentee voting,” said Guanzon.

So far, there are 6,613 applicants for LAV with members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) having the most number with 5,522.

A total of 967 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have already applied for LAV; followed by 96 from the Comelec; 19 from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP); seven from the Department of Education (DepEd); and one each from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET).

Qualified in the LAV are government officials and employees, members of the PNP, members of the AFP, and media practitioners that are registered voters but will not be able to vote on Election Day due to the performance of their functions.

The date for the local absentee voters is from April 27 to 29 in their designated place of voting.

They will be voting only for the positions of president, vice-president, senators, and party-list group.