Training for BEIs in WV starts next week
With two months to go before the May 10,2010 national elections, teachers who will serve as board of election inspectors (BEIs) are yet to be oriented of how the automated system of voting works.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional director Atty. Dennis Ausan said that 19,221 BEIs who will serve in 6,407 clustered precincts all over Western Visayas will start their training on March 8.
The orientation seminar, which will run for about two days per batch, will end on March 27.
After the orientation, Ausan said that the teachers will undergo an examination – written and practical – to be given by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
“There are three teachers in every clustered precinct. And at least one of them is IT (information technology)-capable,” he added.
It was only last Sunday that the 290 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for Western Visayas arrived.
Meanwhile, Ausan assured that they are trying to solve the issue on how the teachers serving as BEIs could cast their vote on the May 10 polls.
“The procedure before was they could vote in place where they serve and not necessarily at the precinct where they are registered. Nagkaproblema gamay because if a teacher is a resident of La Paz and he is teacher of Jaro Elementary School, it will show in the records that he failed to cast his or her vote,” the regional election officer cited.
But the said problem, he added, is not unique in Iloilo City.
“Other provinces also experienced such problem but we are trying our best nga mapasulod sila. In fact, ginpa report naton ang may problema nga amo sina and they understand that,” he added.
On the other hand, Ausan said that the region has a total voters of 3,950,634.
“The list was already cleansed... well, at least until after the ERB hearing following the lat day of registration last October 31, 2009. All dead persons up to that point in time, we already stripped them out of the list. We just had a little additional number for the new voters during the extended registration,” he added.
Also stripped from the list were voters who failed to vote twice and had transferred outside of the region.
Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, registered the highest number of voters at 1,556,448.
It is followed by the city and province of Iloilo at 1,262,639; Capiz with 431,240; Aklan with 316,886; Antique with 289,368; and Guimaras with 94,053.
