The Commission on Elections in Negros Oriental has announced that there will be no mall voting in Dumaguete City, the provincial capital, and other parts of the country, as earlier planned.
Acting Provincial Election Supervisor Atty. Lionel Marco Castillano disclosed this is due to the poll body’s decision to quash the proposal.
An en banc resolution of the poll body showed that majority voted against it, Castillano disclosed.
This means a status quo of the voting precincts in Dumaguete City that were earlier identified to be supposedly transferred to the Robinson Place shopping mall in Barangay Calindagan.
These are Precinct Nos. 105A, 105B, 106A, 106B, 107A, 107B, and 108B at the Dumaguete City High School in Calindagan.
Sometime in February, the Dumaguete City COMELEC office conducted a public hearing on the proposed transfer of these voting precincts to the said mall after it was identified as one of the pilot areas of the proposed mall voting.
The objective was to provide ease of access to voters, especially for people with disabilities and senior citizens.
Atty. Castillano said there were questions on the legality of the project that had caused the disapproval of the proposed voting at shopping malls but personally, he said it is a good idea and hopes in the next election it will be adopted.
Meanwhile, the deployment of Vote Counting Machines for Dumaguete City was moved to May 6, the same day for the Final Testing and Sealing of these units prior to the May 9 elections, Atty. Castillano disclosed.
In another development, the official ballots intended for Negros Oriental have arrived in Dumaguete Monday evening on board the ferry from Manila, St. Michael, The Archangel.
The official ballots are now stored at the 2GO warehouse in Dumaguete City, where an inventory was conducted Tuesday morning, said Castillano.
These will be delivered May 7 to the different treasurer’s offices, he added. (PNA)
