Comelec orders search for alternative voting centers
CONTRARY to the decades-old practice of conducting voting for national and local elections in public schools around the country, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now looking at tapping public places to serve as voting centers in the May 2025 midterm polls.
Elections chairman George Garcia said in a press briefing yesterday that local Comelec personnel have been directed to look for alternative voting centers to be used in next year’s polls,
“Our instructions to our local Comelec personnel, as much as possible, let us find other public places and let us use them as voting centers,” Garcia said.
“If we can use public places other than elementary schools, the better… If there are places we can use for free, like malls or this facility (gym), it’s better if we hold the elections there,” he added.
The poll chief said holding the elections outside of public schools will improve the voting experience of voters, while avoiding damages to school property.
“We can use places where people can queue better and vote more comfortably, than in elementary schools where it is hot and the schools’ furniture and plants are destroyed,” said Garcia.
The Omnibus Election Code provides that polling places may be changed as the Comelec may find them necessary.
The law prefers that polling places must be public buildings that meet the requirements of the law, which include: must be of sufficient size, located as centrally as possible with respect to the residence of the voters, and must be along public roads, as much as possible.
On the other hand, no polling place shall be designated in a public or private building owned, leased, or occupied by any candidate or of any person, who is related to any candidate within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, or any officer of the government or leader of any political party, group or faction.
Garcia said no change in voting centers will be undertaken without the approval of registered voters in the concerned area.
“We have a consultation process. If majority of voters in the concerned precincts prefer the transfer, only then we can transfer. We will not force the change in the venue of voting,” he said.
As for those with no other available public places, the poll chief said they will have no choice but to continue using public schools.
“There will be areas where we have no choice but to hold the elections in the elementary schools because that is the only suitable facility in that barangay, especially in far-flung areas,” said Garcia.
During the May 2022 elections, the Comelec used 37,140 as voting centers nationwide.
