Reflections on the 2013 Barangay Elections

For this election, I was volunteering for LENTE (Legal Network for Truthful Elections) and we were deployed in one of the largest provincial jails operated by the Province of Leyte, the Kauswagan Prison. It's a moderately huge facility holding 580 inmates. There were 280 eligible voters although 53 did not cast their votes.

Together with my three companions, we observed how the electoral process was conducted in a prison facility, a first for all of us actually. There were two precincts opened in the prison and because of the delay in the arrival of the poll watchers, voting started at 8:30 A.M. instead of the officially mandated opening hour of 7:00 A.M. The turnover of voters for the entire morning was a little bit slow as only 4 voters for each precinct was allowed in. During the afternoon, the pace was moved faster with 8 voters for each precinct being entertained.

Generally, the voting process was orderly and peaceful as well as organized and uneventful. However, voting inmates had to squat on the benches were the Ballot Secrecy Folders were placed as there were no armchairs available. I observed one PWD (person with disability) doing the same, as he was not provided any special place to vote.

I also observed that there were no ballot boxes for each precinct, ballots were placed only in folders. One of the precinct chairmen pointed out that the absence of ballot boxes is due to the fact that the Prison Precinct were mere clusters of Brgy. Barayong, were the ballot boxes were located. The used ballots would then be transported to said barangay were they will be placed in ballot boxes.

There was some confusion with regards to the sealing of the used and unused ballots as one precinct sealed the same in the provided brown envelopes while the other precinct did not, the chairman of which explained that the sealing will only happen at Brgy. Barayong since, as pointed out earlier, the prison precincts were mere clusters of the former.

Another thing that was not followed was the extension of time for the voting process. Officially, prison precincts were supposed to close at 12 noon while regular ones would close at 3 P.M. However, due to the slow paced voting in the morning, both precincts extended the voting time up to 3 P.M.

Other than the problems pointed out, the voting process in said prison facility was generally conducted successfully.