3-day local absentee voting starts April 27

MANILA – Over 84,000 public and private employees who have applied to vote ahead of the May 9 national and local polls will start casting their votes on Wednesday, April 27, for the three-day local absentee voting (LAV), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Tuesday.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia said the personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and other government agencies, as well as members of the media, will be voting ahead of the registered voters in the country starting April 27 until April 29.

“For PNP, AFP and other government offices, it is the head of office who will conduct the voting, he/she will be the one to distribute to the local absentee voters their ballots,” he said in a Viber message to the media.

“Then the voters will accomplish the ballots, after that, they will give it back to the head who will collect all envelopes containing the accomplished ballots, then transmit it back to the Electoral Contests Adjudication Department (ECAD),” Garcia added.

As for the members of the media, he said they will vote at Regional Election Director (RED)-National Capital Region (NCR) in Intramuros, Manila.

The voting period will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They will be voting for national positions only, one each for president and vice president, 12 senators and one party-list group, using manual ballots.

“The counting and canvassing of votes on May 9 at 7 p.m. will be done by the Committee on Local Absentee Voting (CLAV), the venue will be on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Bureau of Treasury, Palacio del Gobernador, Intramuros. All candidates will be notified so they can send their watchers to observe,” Garcia said.

“The CLAV will create a Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) to count the votes. They are all from the Commission,” he added.

Garcia said chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and Commissioner Aimee Neri are also part of the LAV. They will be voting at the Comelec main office.

The majority of the LAV are members of the PNP numbering 47,021; followed by the Philippine Army at 34,570; 4,217 from the Philippine Air Force; and 3,005 from the Department of Education.

For the Philippine Navy, there are 857 personnel; the Comelec has 1,017; 24 from the Department of the Interior and Local Government; Philippine Coast Guard, 563; Department of Foreign Affairs, four; Philippine Information Agency, 27; Bureau of Fire Protection, 147; Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, 1,047.

The Philippine Military Academy has 228 local absentee voters; Cullion Hospital, three; National Power Corporation, nine; Public Attorney’s Office, two; and 957 members of the media.