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Voting precincts to be set up in jails

Written by magnolia_eic on 06 March 2010

FOR the first time in the country’s election history, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will put up special polling precincts in detention cells to uphold the rights of the inmates to vote on May 10.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the special polling precincts in the detention facilities will be manned by Special Board of Election Inspectors.

The Comelec, in Resolution 09-005, upheld the right to vote of detainees and prisoners in national prisons, provincial, city and municipal jails and other government detention facilities on May 10.

The resolution granted the petition of the Commission on Human Rights to establish special polling places complete with Special Board of Election Inspectors in municipal, district, city and provincial jails with at least 100 registered inmates.

Sarmiento said that if a jail has less than a hundred inmates who have registered, they will have to apply for escorted voting to enable them to vote in polling centers found in public schools.

According to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, of 50,000 inmates awaiting trial across the country, only 23,657 have registered for the May 10 polls. (PIA-Bohol)

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