BONTOC, Mountain Province – The Commission on Election (Comelec) urged registered voters in the different parts of the province to start verifying whether or not their names are still included in the voters lists that will be posted in the different polling centers and barangay halls prior to the conduct of the May 14, 2018 synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to avoid confusion on election day.
Provincial Election Supervisor Ricardo Lampac said that the barangay and SK elections will definitely push through considering that it is already impossible for Congress to pass the required law to reset the scheduled political exercise as lawmakers are now on recess and will only go back to session right after the barangay and SK polls or on May 15, 2018.
“We urged our registered voters to verify whether or not their names are still part of the voters list which will be posted in the different polling centers and barangays provincewide so that we can extend whatever assistance we can do to ascertain why their names are missing or locate their names from our master list,” Lampac stressed.
He explained that there will be slight adjustments in the clustered precincts provincewide since the mode of the elections is manual, thus, it is still best for the voters to already know their polling precincts as early as possible to avoid overcrowding in the polling centers on election day when voters start to flock and look for their names in the available voters list.
According to him, the situation in the province is manageable because of the reasonable number of registered voters in the 10 municipalities that is why they are doing their best to strictly comply with the prescribed timeline given by the Commission to guarantee the success of the synchronized barangay and SK polls next month.
Lampac also urged aspiring candidates for the different elective positions to file their certificates of candidacy as early as possible during the prescribed filing period on April 14-20, 2018 to avoid long lines in the different election offices on the last day of the filing of their COCs.
The poll official expressed confidence that the conduct of the barangay and SK elections in the province next month will be peaceful and orderly because the people of Mountain Province were able to prove in the past political exercises, whether national or local, that they are law-abiding citizens and they also respect the outcome of the elections.
Lampac called on the province’s electorate to go out and vote on election day so that their voices could be heard, especially in determining who will be their barangay and youth leaders in the coming years, to avoid being criticized for not being involved in the political exercise mandated by the fundamental law of the land or the Constitution.
By HENT
