GENERAL SANTOS CITY, (PNA) — For the first time in the city’s election history, senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) from an urban village here were allowed to cast their votes in Monday’s barangay elections in a polling precinct set up inside a local shopping mall.
The special voting is part of the Commission on Election’s (Comelec) pilot testing for the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 10366, which authorized the poll body “to establish precincts or accessible polling places exclusively for persons with disabilities and senior citizens.”
The accessible polling place established at the atrium of the SM City General Santos here opened its doors to voters at around 7 a.m.
And in less than five minutes after approaching the Board of Election Tellers (BET), voters Gloria Rivera and Bartolome Hoyo separately emerged from the polling center with wide smiles.
Rivera, 79, and Hoyo 76, were among the 68 senior citizens and PWDs from Barangay Lagao here who agreed to be part of a pilot project of the Comelec.
“There’s no queuing, it’s not tiring. This is very good for us senior citizens,” said Rivera, recalling that in the previous elections, voting has been difficult for her since she has to look for her precinct amid the huge crowd.
Citing her age and her foot ailment, Rivera said she would not have voted if she has to cast her vote inside the public school this barangay elections.
For his part, Hoyo praised the Comelec for the chance to vote away from the “maddening crowd inside the public school.”
In my regular precinct during the past elections, the line was very long. The precinct itself is cramp and hot,” he said.
“I hope in the next elections, it will still be like this for us senior citizens and the PWDs. No long lines and easy to find your name to vote quickly,” Hoyo added.
Lawyer Donna Bernardo, a staff of Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca who was here to observe the special voting, said those who participated in the special polls did it voluntarily.
“They consented to be part of this special exercise. Under the law, you cannot just get the record of voters from their precincts,” she said.
In the entire country, Bernardo said that a total of 224 senior citizens and PWDs consented to be part of the special voting, all held inside SM malls through a memorandum of agreement with the Comelec.
The other pilot areas were Manila, Batangas and Cebu.
Padaca, who heads the Comelec’s committee on PWDs and senior citizens, earlier said they will use the results of the special voting for the planned nationwide implementation of RA 10366 in the 2016 local and national elections.
“If this will turn out successful, we will launch a nationwide massive information and education campaign in preparation for the 2016 elections,” she said.
Bernardo said the ballots will be returned to their respective precincts once voting closes at 3 p.m. for counting.
Apparently there was a miscommunication to the public as some elderly came in for naught.
There were some senior citizens who walked in at the mall to vote but were turned away because they were not on the list, said Anthony Ebol, a local Comelec worker.
“This is not for all senior citizens or PWDs but for those selected and had given their consent,” he said.
Most of those who participated in the special voting were senior citizens at a total of 65, with only three PWDs.
This city has a total of 239,319 registered voters for the barangay elections clustered in 704 precincts out of the 1,753 established precincts.