DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan — Preparations for the conduct of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in the province this May 14 are almost complete, said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Provincial Office on Thursday.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), provincial election supervisor lawyer Marino Salas said preparations are now 90 percent complete, and that they are now awaiting supplies to be used for the elections from the national office.
Comelec-Pangasinan has already hired 16,000 teachers who will act as Board of Election Tellers (BET) for the upcoming polls, which will make use of the manual voting system.
“To finish the ballot counting as early as possible, we need many BETs, who are public school teachers,” said Salas.
Pangasinan has a total of 3, 000 clustered precincts.
He said ballots for the SK and barangay elections are separate hence, “voters aged 18 to 30 years will vote twice; one for the SK ballot and another for the barangay ballot, respectively”.
The election period will start on April 14, while aspiring candidates can file their certificates of candidacy (COC) on April 14 to 20.
A nine-day campaign period from May 4 to May 12 would follow.
Salas reminded candidates to visit their respective Comelec offices, or download COC forms from the Comelec’s website. (Hilda Austria and Ahicam Pasion/PNA)
