258 Bulacan inmates to cast votes inside jail

CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan — A total of 258 inmates of Bulacan provincial jail will cast their votes in Monday’s local and national mid-term elections.

Retired police colonel Fernando Villanueva, provincial jail warden, said on Sunday the voting of the inmates will be conducted inside the provincial jail at the Capitol Compound here.

“The voting of the inmates was scheduled from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. and they are only entitled to vote for senators and party-list groups,” he said in an interview with PNA.

Villanueva said they had conducted an orientation for the eligible voters of the City of Malolos only and trained jail personnel who will serve as special electoral board.

“We have established four clustered precincts with 12 Commission of Elections (Comelec) personnel where the manual voting of the inmates will be conducted,” he added.

The official further said they opted to conduct the voting for the inmates inside the jail due to the big number of voters, and the lack of security personnel that will escort them to the polling centers and precincts.

Based on the approved procedure, he said no vote counting machine (VCM) will be brought to the jail.

Villanueva said Comelec support personnel will bring the official ballots to the clustered precincts inside the jail.

After the voting, Villanueva added the filled-out ballots will be brought back to the polling precincts for feeding into the VCM.

He said the provincial government and the BJMP have assigned personnel to secure the clustered precincts inside the jail and the movement of the poll support staff handling the ballots.