{"id":269871,"date":"2020-09-25T07:55:33","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T11:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=269871"},"modified":"2020-09-25T07:55:33","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T11:55:33","slug":"no-reason-to-postpone-2022-polls-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/25\/no-reason-to-postpone-2022-polls-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"No reason to postpone 2022 polls: groups"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meanwhile, Danilo Arao of Kontradaya also expressed opposition to plans to postpone the 2022 elections. (Pixabay Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Poll watchdog groups said Friday there is no reason to postpone the conduct of the elections in May 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not see any reason to postpone the 2022 NLE (National and Local Elections). Congressman (Mikey) Arroyo used the low number of registrants to justify his point that voters are afraid because of Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). Covid-19 is not the reason for this low number. Filipinos are just like this, waiting (for) the deadline before taking action. That’s why there are many calls to register now,\u201d Rona Caritos of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Caritos said other countries have managed to hold their elections this year despite the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“They did not postpone their elections. So no reason for us, especially we have ample time to prepare for our elections if Covid-19 will still be a problem by then,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Caritos also urged the people not to be swayed by calls to postpone the elections.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Danilo Arao of Kontradaya also expressed opposition to plans to postpone the 2022 elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe signed a unity statement last September 14, which calls for the holding of the 2022 elections. There is no reason to postpone it as it is mandated by the Constitution,\u201d Arao said.<\/p>\n

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said they would include health and safety protocols in their preparations for the 2022 polls should Covid-19 remain a threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us be very clear about this: the basis of all Comelec planning for 2022 is that pandemic conditions will persist until then \u2013 there\u2019s still Covid-19, and we still need to implement precautions so the virus will not spread \u2013 whether voters or election workers,\u201d Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in his Twitter, @jabjimenez.<\/p>\n

He is certain that even though people are afraid of the virus, they would come out to register and participate in the May 2022 elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are afraid of catching Covid-19, yes. Yet they still come to register \u2013 and in 2022, they WILL come out to vote. Comelec will be there to help them do it safely. Maybe we shouldn\u2019t be underestimating the courage and democratic spirit of the Filipino. #MagparehistroKa,\u201d Jimenez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Poll watchdog groups said Friday there is no reason to postpone the conduct of the elections in May 2022. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":214836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-patinio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269873,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269871\/revisions\/269873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}