The Diocesan Electoral Board of the Diocese of Dumaguete will deploy monitoring teams for the mock elections set in selected areas nationwide, including Negros Oriental, on Saturday, February 2.
Msgr. Julius Heruela, DEB convenor, said in a meeting Friday said that monitoring teams are allowed and recognized by the Commission on Elections to observe the mock elections, that is part of the preparations for the May 13 mid-term polls.
The simultaneous mock elections had initially been set on December 12, and later moved to today, but the Comelec postponed it anew to February 2, Negros Oriental OIC provincial elections supervisor, Jerome Brillantes, said.
He said his office is awaiting the guidelines for the mock polls that, in Negros Oriental, will be conducted in Poblacion 1 and Camanjac in Dumaguete City, and Poblacion and Kabulakan in Sta. Catalina town.
Heruela said the deployment of monitoring teams in these areas is in accordance with a memorandum dated yesterday, and issued by Henrietta de Villa, national chairperson of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, recognized by the Comelec as a watchdog of the electoral exercise.
In Negros Oriental, 50 registered voters will be designated by the barangay captain, in coordination with the election officer, to participate in the mock elections in selected polling places in Dumaguete and Sta. Catalina.
Members of the media will be allowed inside the polling places to cover the mock elections, and monitoring teams and volunteers deployed should record its conduct, the transmission of election results, and any hitches that may take place during said activity, she added. (JFP)