MARAWI
CITY, Lanao del Sur, March 19 (PIA) -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is
aiming for ‘zero’ failure of elections in the entire province, this coming
May.
Lawyer Ray Sumalipao, regional
election director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) emphasized
this during the recently concluded Lanao del Sur Stakeholders Conference for
Peaceful, Free and Fair 2013 Elections saying that the main enemy in the
province during elections is the failure of elections.
To make elections work, he said two
task forces will be created to roam around the province and monitor the
electoral process.
He said these task forces will be
composed of personnel from the Comelec, Philippine National Police (PNP) and
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
He further said that they have asked
the Comelec En Banc to authorize the mobilization of the security personnel, as
a contingency measure, in case the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) will not
report to their posts.
Other measures to be taken by the
poll body include the swapping of election officers to eradicate doubts on
Comelec personnel and insulate them from political suspicions.
Sumalipao also belied reports that
there were no cases filed against erring Comelec personnel. He said they have
dismissed three election officers, one from Maguindanao and two in Lanao del
Sur, to show that they are true to their commitment.
The ARMM Election Director meanwhile
announced that the clustering of precincts was already approved and now
available at the Comelec website.
He said the Comelec En Banc has also
decided to download the investigation of violations to the provincial election
supervisor to avoid the clogging of election cases.
Moreover, the training of more than
2,000 BEIs in the province have started last March 7 and this will end until
March 31.
