MANILA — With more than three weeks before the May 14 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) vowed Saturday to intensify its voter education campaign since there are confusions among voters aged 18-30 years old because they will receive two ballots – one for the Barangay elections and another for the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls.
With this, Comelec acting Chairman Al Parreño said they will be coordinating with the National Youth Commission (NYC) and citizens’ arm to inform these voters that they need to get two ballots on Election Day.
The confusion on ballots was uncovered during the election simulation for the forthcoming polls conducted on Saturday at the Rosauro Almario Elementary School in Tondo, Manila.
The poll body acting chief explained that the mock polls was held to see the point of view of the voter, the teachers and partners, such as the Philippine National Police, NYC, and other organizations.
“From the point of view of voters, we saw that the key issue is the 18 to 30 years old handling the ballots, they interchange the ballots for village and youth polls,” he explained.
“That is why we’ve talked with NYC, we think the solution is voter education, we’ve partner with NYC to educate voters that they will be using two ballots,” Parreño added.
The same issue was also raised by teachers who served during the simulation of the forthcoming elections.
“From (the) point of view of teachers, they also observed confusion in the handling of the voting 18 to 30 years olds,” he said.
As to their partnership with authorities, they are talking with the PNP on how to react if there were disruptions.
On the other hand, Commissioner Luie Guia noted that the reason why they held the event is to know what are the things to be done.
“The stages in the process that need streamlining, we will do all our best for our partners to be prepared,” he said.
For his part, Commissioner Sheriff Abas added that they will discuss in the next en banc the observations by stakeholders to make sure that the May 14 polls will be smooth and they will not have any problem.
“Rest assured that we will do everything for the polls to be orderly, honest and peaceful,” he said.
A total of 100 people participated in the mock polls covering two barangays.
Fictional characters from Filipino telenovelas were used as candidates in the mock polls, such as Ricardo Dalisay played by actor Coco Martin from prime time soap “Ang Probinsyano”.
The activity started at 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. It was immediately followed by the counting of the votes.
On May 14, regular voters will be electing one Punong Barangay and seven Members of the Sangguniang Barangay while the youth voters will vote for one Chairperson and seven Members of the SK. (PNA)
