Inmates instructed on new voting system
To make sure that their votes won’t go to naught, prisoners of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Iloilo City district jail in Brgy. Ungka, Jaro, Iloilo City were taught on the automated voting system very recently.
Representatives from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) – Iloilo City mainly taught registered voters on how to shade opposite the candidates they wished to elect.
This is because during the May 10, 2010 polls, no Precinct Count Optical scan (PCOS) machines will be made available at the BJMP district jail in Ungka.
Instead, Comelec-Iloilo City assistant election officer Jonathan Sayno said that a special board of canvassers will be assigned at the BJMP.
They will be the one who will carry the votes of the inmates to the precincts where they are registered.
It was gathered that there are around 655 inmates incarcerated at BJMP Ungka.
Of the said number, more than 300 could vote.
“That’s why, we have requested our City COMELEC to conduct this voters’ education program. Systematic na ang pagboto ngayon. So, we want that our inmates will be educated on this,” said BJMP Ungka jail warden Supt. Samson Abaygar.
