BACOLOD City – A total of 12,880 voters in Negros Occidental will cast their ballots through the local absentee voting (LAV) for the May 12 midterm elections.
Lawyer Ian Lee Ananoria, provincial election officer of Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Negros Occidental, yesterday said the LAV will begin on Monday, April 28, until April 30, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at military and police camps in the province.
Last week, government agencies and offices that have requested to participate in the LAV have started receiving the official ballots for the upcoming elections.
The poll body has approved a total of 57,689 LAV voters, which include 29,030 Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel, 23,448 Philippine National Police personnel, 4,206 government employees, and 1,005 members of the media.
Meanwhile, the 2,835 vote-counting machines intended for the province are already complete.
“We will invite the watchers and the media to look and inspect the VCMs,” Ananoria said.
The Comelec will deploy the machines to the respective election officers of the cities and municipalities on April 28 and 29 .
Also, election officers have already sent notices to the political parties by informing them the venue and the time of the testing and sealing.
Ananoria said the final testing and sealing of the machines will be on May 7.
He added that the official ballots will be arriving on May 1 or May 2 and the PNP will provide security for the deployment./PN
