No need to extend midterm polls, says Comelec

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections on Monday afternoon said the extension of the midterm polls is “unlikely” and “is not being talked about now.”

In an interview with the press members, Comelec spokesman Director James Jimenez said the cut-off time for voters to arrive to their respective polling precincts is slated at 6 p.m.

Jimenez explained that there is no need to add voting hours yet as the schedule is “flexible.”

“So what we're doing is we’re allowing those who are already in the polling place to stay and finish your process-- that happens automatically because flexible ang voting hours natin (our voting hours is flexible)," Jimenez told the reporters.

“So there is no need at this point to officially declare additional hours for voting because flexible na tayo (we are flexible),” he added.

The Comelec official said accepting late-comers does not make sense because the poll body does not need to repeat the election process for “someone who wasn’t there suddenly.”

“If you think about it, do you really want to reward those who come late?” Jimenez said.

The poll body set the midterm elections at 12 hours.

Jimenez said most polling precincts followed the schedule and opened at 6 a.m. He added that the poll body is still verifying reports of precincts that failed to open.