By CHERRY JOY VENILES
UNLIKE the May 2013 automated polls, the barangay election on Monday is a return to basics: manual voting where pens, blank ballots and a good old blackboard/whiteboard are the order of the day.
After reading through a certified list of candidates stapled inside ballot secrecy folders, voters will fill up their ballots by writing in the corresponding spaces the names of their preferred candidates — one barangay chair and seven councilors.
Voting will start at 7 in the morning and end at 3 p.m. in designated polling places nationwide. After this, the Board of Election Tellers (BET) will publicly count the votes and ascertain results inside the polling places.
The “new process” was explained on Saturday by Jerico Jimenez of the San Juan City Comelec Office to a group of teachers who will sit as BET on Election Day. Unlike the automated mid-term elections, votes for the barangay council seats would be read and recorded by the BET and not by PCOS machines, he said.
The General Appropriations Act allocates over P1.7 billion for the October 28 elections. This back-to-basics approach is in keeping with the provisions of the Omnibus Election Code where elections are to be carried out in a fast, practical and less costly manner.
What you need to know: Election spokesman James Jimenez has reminded voters to write legibly and write the full name of their chosen candidates to make sure their votes get counted. Comelec Resolution 9751, or the General Instructions for the Conduct of the Synchronized Barangay Elections have very specific guidelines.
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