The local and national elections in 2022 will still be conducted despite the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to Senator Imee Marcos, early planning and preparations are key in ensuring that voters will be able to participate while observing health and safety protocols.
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said among the adjustments is the opening of more polling areas to prevent crowding in precincts.
“Middle of February a lot of our resources and personnel will be already on site, kasi nga kailangan natin accommodate ang (because we need to accommodate the) 14-day quarantine requirement,” COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez stated.
Jimenez added that the longer duration of the election compared to the previous two to three days is expected due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the emergence of troll accounts and foreign interference behind the spread of disinformation in social media are being considered as possible issues in the 2022 elections.
It can be recalled that around 155 accounts, 11 pages with more than 100,000 followers were removed by Facebook last year due to “inauthentic behavior.”
Marcos also raised concern on the inclusion of some anti-government organizations as fact-checkers.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) assured they have the tools to detect perpetrators of misinformation but they “would need that proper mandate to do an investigation because the cybersecurity bureau does not have the law enforcement jurisdiction”. – Report from Eunice Samonte
