Zambo evacuees, voters ferried to poll centers

ZAMBOANGA CITY , Philippines   â€“ The Commission on Election (Comelec) allowed evacuees who are eligible voters to be ferried to their designated polling centers during yesterday’s special barangay elections in this city.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, along with Commissioners Grace Padaca and Al Parreño, personally oversaw the special election here after it was postponed last Oct. 28 due to the standoff between the government security forces and members of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The Comelec said all polling precincts in Zamboanga City and Bohol province were open and functioning as of 7 a.m.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the elections in Zamboanga City were generally peaceful and orderly, save for minor incidents that did not affect the conduct of the elections.               

The polling centers for the war-torn villages of Rio Hondo, Mariki, Sta. Barbara and Sta. Catalina had to be transferred to other schools that were not razed or destroyed in the firefight.

Civil servants, not teachers, were tapped as third members of the board of election tellers (BET) in the city due to the lack of teachers to serve in the polls.

As of press time, the Comelec central office in Manila was waiting for an update on the conduct of elections in Bohol.

Brillantes said on Sunday night that voters staying in evacuation centers would be ferried to their designated polling center in dump trucks owned by the government.

“This is to ensure that there will be no low turnout of voting,” he said. 

Comelec regional director Wilfred Jay Balisado justified the ferrying of voters, noting the distance of the polling centers from the evacuation center.

Balisado said this would erase doubts and suspicions of electioneering than allowing candidates themselves to bring the voters to the polling places.

Chief Superintendent Juanito Vaño, police regional office director, said the curfew would remain from midnight to 4 a.m.

He said the BETs would be allowed to stay at the precincts for the counting of votes.      – With Sheila Crisostomo