Mock voting slated in Cebu next week

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Elections is set to hold mock voting in Cebu next week in preparation for the May 9 national and local elections.

The whole day simulation will be held simultaneously at the Mabolo Elementary School and Lusaran Elementary Schools in Cebu City and Cabutongan Barangay Hall in Santander.

It will be participated by 100 registered voters in each identified polling precincts. They were selected randomly from different sectors, including the vulnerable ones.

“It is a nationwide activity. We have vote counting machine, BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors), and pre-selected voters. They will be invited to vote, test the machines, and after which, we will transmit the result to the municipal canvassing, then to provincial and national,” said Comelec-Cebu Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano.

He said manual auditing will also be conducted after the results are transmitted to test the accuracy of the counting machines.

Asked if there were discrepancies between the mock elections and manual audit in previous mock polls, Castillano said the accuracy rating was “perfect.”

The Comelec’s Information and Technology Department will print the Election Day Computerized Voters Lists, as well as the Posted Computerized Voters Lists for the mock elections.

Meanwhile, Comelec-Cebu announced that mall voting on election day will push through. The list of the official malls that will serve as voting centers is yet to be released.

Castillano said public hearings on mall voting will be conducted in Consolacion and Minglanilla and the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay and Mandaue in the next two weeks.

“We just want to know the acceptabi-lity of the mall voting among the voters affected in that area,” he explained.

The malls will be chosen based on compliance with the guidelines set by Comelec.

“They must provide the necessary space and security (for example),” Castillano said, adding, these voting centers will also cater the registered voters in the nearby barangays.

He said voters will also be notified of their centers where they would cast their votes. — (FREEMAN)