18 inmates escorted out of jail to cast their votes
JORDAN, Guimaras – Eighteen out of 24 inmates from the Guimaras Rehabilitation Center (GRC) here cast their votes on Monday in the country’s first synchronized automated elections.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) election supervisor Ma. Fuerza Galanto said that the 18 inmates voted in San Miguel Elementary School, in the provincial capital of Jordan. The prisoners were accompanied by guards from the GRC early in the morning and were among the first voters to cast their ballots.
A GRC representative did not explain why six other prisoners failed to show up at the voting center.
Meanwhile, Galanto said that initial reports showed that the conduct of elections in the island province was generally peaceful as eager voters waited patiently in long lines. Some voters even sought the comforting shade of nearby trees to escape the scorching heat while waiting for their turn to vote. (PNA)
