MANILA, Philippines—The voting period on election day in May has been extended by three hours to accommodate the expected large numbers of voters in the “clustered” precincts, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.
In general instructions released recently by the poll body, voting in the precincts will start at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m., instead of the usual 3 p.m., on May 10, 2010, stretching the voting period to 11 hours.
And if there are people still standing in the queues, Comelec officials have instructions to extend the voting hours even further.
“If at six o’clock there are still voters within 30 meters in front of the polling place who have not yet cast their votes, voting shall continue but only to allow [these] voters to cast their votes without interruption,” the Comelec said.
The poll clerk will be asked to list down the names of those voters still standing in line, who will then be called three times.
But if the listed voter is not around when his or her name is called, he or she will not be allowed to vote during the extended period, the poll body warned.
Reduced to clusters
According to election officials, the more than 340,000 precincts nationwide will be reduced to 80,000 by clustering 3 to 5 precincts into one voting cell. The number of precincts in a cluster would depend on the size of the population of a municipality.
Officials said they expect one clustered precinct to have around 1,000 voters this year when the country will be holding fully automated elections for the first time.
In previous elections, where voting and counting were done manually, there were about 200 voters in each precinct.
The Comelec said it decided to “cluster” the precincts to save on the costs of leasing the voting and counting machines.
Watchers and observers
The poll body said watchers from political parties, candidates and election watchdog groups would be allowed to observe and record the proceedings inside the voting centers.
“Each candidate and registered political party or coalition of political parties duly registered with the commission and fielding candidates in the election, as well as duly accredited citizens’ arms may appoint two watchers, to serve alternately in every polling place,” the Comelec said.
Individual candidates for senator and other elective offices are not allowed to have watchers. Candidates who belong to one slate are “collectively” entitled to one observer.
Watchers from the dominant minority and majority parties and the observers from the Comelec’s accredited arm will be given preference inside the polling precinct, if there is limited space.
These watchers are entitled to question or protest the proceedings of the Board of Election Inspectors.
At the end of the day, they will be asked to affix their signature or thumb print to the election returns that will be printed out of the voting and counting machines.
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