The Commission on Elections would no longer allow bystanders to loiter at precincts and polling places to limit the risk of COVID-19 infections on the 2022 national and local elections.
In an election stakeholders’ forum organized by the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Comelec Deputy Executive Director for Operations Teopisto Elias Jr. said police and soldiers would help voters at the queues to prevent crowding.
“Unlike before ‘yung experience natin, bago buboto, nag-kumpol-kumpol pa, nagchi-chismisan pa, nagkwe-kwentuhan pa inside the voting center. This time, we will not allow it to happen,” Elias said.
“Meron tayong mga COVID safety protocols na naka-assign doon sa voting centers to manage and to check any situation na mayron nagkukumpul-kumpilan to the effect na hindi pa boboto, andon lang naka-tambay lang,” he added.
[We will not allow this to happen unlike in our previous experience that people would gather and talk while inside the voting center. This time, we have COVID safety protocols assigned in voting centers to manage and check crowd build-ups to the effect that they are yet to vote loafing around.]
Elias said crowd control was a measures to reduce the risk of infection especially with the threat of the Omicron variant.
“Basically, sa labas pa lang, the PNP or AFP, as the case may be, will manage the crowd doon sa labas (the PNP or AFP will manage the crowd outside) while they’re queuing before they enter the voting centers to see to it that minimum health standards and protocols are complied with,” he said.
Elias said the electoral board may ask the help of soldiers and police at the polling places if people would not comply with the instructions of COVID martials and disregard minimum public health standards.
The Comelec has released the list of measures that would be implemented during the May 9 elections.
These include temperature checks at the entrance of the precincts, separate entrance and exit points, health stations and holding areas, installation of plastic barriers between the electoral board and voters, mandatory wearing of face masks, physical distancing, and hand sanitation.
Elias said a maximum of 10 to 15 voters would only be allowed inside a polling place at any given time, but this might still vary depending on the size of the polling place.
The voting hours will also start from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m, he added. -NB, GMA News
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