Comelec eyes malls as alternative venue for voting in 2025

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is considering malls as alternative venues for voting in the 2025 national and local elections (NLE).

Comelec Chairman George Garcia made the remark during the voter education and registration fair held at the University of Sto. Tomas on Thursday.

In a press conference, the poll chief said the expansion of the mall voting program is in line with their instruction to local Comelec offices to look for other public places, other than the public schools, as venues for the conduct of elections.

"Bakit hindi natin gamitin 'yung mga ganitong lugar sa isang barangay, kaysa nagsisiksikan tayo sa elementary school na pagkainit-init at pagkatapos nasisira pa 'yung kagamitan ng mga bata?" Garcia said.

"Samantalang kung nandito tayo sa mga ganitong lugar, maayos po, maayos ang pagpila, maayos ang pagboto, at the same time, hindi po natin nagagamit ang mga paaralan," he added.

(Why don't we use these kinds of places which are located in a barangay instead of being cramped inside an elementary school and eventually damage the equipment for students. If we are inside these facilities, the voting process would be better and we won't need to use classrooms.)

The Comelec chief recalled a statement from Vice President Sara Duterte, who concurrently sits as Education secretary, where the latter noted the poll body's use of public school facilities during elections.

"Isa sa mga request sa atin ng Vice President natin, Ma'am Inday Sara Duterte, kasi nga gumagamit ng kuryente, gumagamit ng tubig, wala naman kaming binabayad sa DepEd (Department of Education) patungkol d'yan sa bagay na 'yan. So isipin ninyo libreng nakakagamit ang Comelec during the election and yet, ang nagbabayad ay ang DepEd," he said.

(One of the requests of our Vice President Sara Duterte is to look into the payment of the utilities like water and electricity that were used by Comelec during the elections. Come to think of it, we are not paying anything to DepEd.)

"So kung saka-sakaling may ibang lugar na maibibigay naman sa atin nang libre katulad ng malls, oh di mas maganda na d'on na lang natin gawin..." he added.

(That's why if there are other places which we can use for free like malls, then we should utilize it.)

Garcia mentioned that 171 malls already agreed to use their facilities for voter registration.

"Kaya naman pala natin gamitin at kaya naman pala 'yung mga public places other than [the] elementary schools (We can use public place, other than elementary schools, for elections)," he said.

Despite this, Garcia said there are still barangays who have no choice but to use the public schools, especially in the far-flung areas.

Further, the Comelec chief said the voting precincts that will be transferred inside the malls will depend on the result of the consultations.

"Meron po kaming tinatawag na consultation process. Ibig sabihin, kung majority ng mga nakatira sa barangay na 'yan o sa presintong 'yan gusto ilipat ang kanilang pagboto sa mall, saka po namin ililipat. Hindi po namin pupwersahin ang paglipat ng venue ng pagboto," he said.

(We will still have a consultation process. If the majority of the constituents want to transfer their voting precincts inside the malls, then we will do it. We will not force the transfer of their voting precincts.)

During the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, the Comelec conducted a pilot test of mall voting in 15 malls across the country.

The pilot test for the mall voting was deemed "very successful" by the Comelec.—AOL, GMA Integrated News