ILOILO City – Over 4,000 government personnel in Western Visayas will start casting their votes today for the three-day (April 27 to 29) local absentee voting (LAV), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.
The absentee voters are in the following areas:
* Aklan – 361
* Antique – 204
* Capiz – 339
* Guimaras – 97
* Iloilo – 354
* Negros Occidental – 2,807
They are mostly personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other government agencies.
There are also six absentee voters who are employees of private companies. They are members of the media.
They can’t vote on Election Day, May 9, due to their work, according to Comelec assistant regional director and acting election officer of Comelec-Iloilo City Atty. Tomas Valera.
Voting is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The absentee voters will be voting for national positions only, one each for president and vice president, 12 senators and one party-list group.
Where are the voting venues? Comelec’s rules and regulations for local absentee voting state:
* In case of voting of government officials and employees, members of the AFP and PNP, the heads of offices / supervisors / commanders or officers next-in-rank shall designate, not later than April 12, 2022, the place of voting, where the voters shall converge to vote, with written notice upon the Municipal / City / District Election Officer who or whose representative will supervise the conduct of voting thereat. The heads of offices / supervisors / commanders or officers next-in-rank shall ensure that the place of voting so designated shall be final.
* In case of media voters, voting shall be at the Comelec office where they filed their applications to avail themselves of the local absentee voting under the supervision of the City Election Officer (CEO), Provincial Election Supervisor (PES) or RED as the case may be.
The Local Absentee Voting adopts the manual system of elections where the voting, counting and canvassing are done manually./PN
