Comelec: Absentee voters listup deadline set March 7

Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday reminded government officials, including soldiers and police officers, as well as media personnel, of the March 7 deadline for those who wish to cast their ballots through the local absentee voting (LAV).

In an advisory, Comelec said LAV is available for government officials and employees, including members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, if, on election day they are assigned temporarily to perform duties in places where they are not registered voters.

Members of the media and media practitioners, including their technical and support cast, may also cast ballots through LAV if they will not be able to vote due to the performance of their functions in covering and reporting on the conduct of elections.

LAV will be conducted on April 28, 29 and 30 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The voters may only cast ballots for senatorial and party list candidates.

Comelec Resolution No. 11091 promulgated on Jan. 3, which laid down the rules for the LAV, define “media voters” to include not only print and broadcast journalists but also photojournalists, online journalists, documentary makers, television and radio production staff, bloggers, and freelancers.

Local absentee forms are available at the official Comelec website. Government employees and officials, including PNP and AFP personnel, may file their LAV application forms for LAV before their heads of offices, supervisor, commanders or next-in-rank officials.

Depending on their location, media voters may file their forms and other required documents at the office of the Comelec regional director for Metro Manila, the office of the city election officer in highly urbanized or independent cities outside Metro Manila, or the office of the provincial election supervisor.

The government agencies must designate the voting places for their personnel not later than April 12. Media voters will cast their ballots in the Comelec office where they filed their LAV application forms.

Resolution No. 11091 created a four-member committee on Local Absentee Voting (Clav) and LAV groups to process and verify the applications coming from different regions and prepare the list of qualified local absentee voters by April 8.

Those who opted to vote through LAV shall no longer be allowed to vote in their regular precincts on election day.

The special electoral boards (SEBs), reception and custody group, and special board of canvassers (SBOC) for LAV shall be constituted by April 29.

The ballots must be sent to the Clav at the Comelec central office in Manila not later than 7 p.m. on May 11. Using the automated counting machines, the SEBs will count the votes starting 8 a.m. on May 12.

The SBOC shall transmit the electronic results and the printed canvass reporters and certificates to the Comelec en banc, sitting as the national board of canvassers for the senatorial and party list elections.

Local absentee voting for government employees was first introduced through Executive Order No. 157 in 1987 and Republic Act No. 7166, or the 1991 Synchronized Election Law. LAV for media personnel was first allowed through RA 10380 enacted in 2013.