MALL VOTING. A poll worker attends to voters from Barangay Pari-an, Cebu City who participated in mall voting at Robinsons Galleria on Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections. Commission on Elections-7 regional director Lionel Marco Castillano on Thursday (Nov. 2, 2023) said Cebuanos may experience more in mall voting in 2025. (PNA file photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – Following positive feedback for the pilot mall-voting here during the Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, poll officials are considering adopting the same to more areas in 2025.
Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Commission on Elections (Comelec)-Central Visayas regional director, said the election body is looking at the possibility of putting polling centers at malls in Cebu and other areas in the region, that may be used during the national elections.
"Mall voting is in line with the mission of the Comelec to enhance voting experience. But with the number of voters, dili pa gyud kaya tanan (it can't be all) in malls by 2025," Castillano told the Philippine News Agency on Thursday.
He cited accessibility, convenience, and security as advantages of holding polls in malls rather than having the usual casting of ballots in schools.
Castillano said from voting to canvassing of ballots in the malls in the next elections could go hybrid, "subject to the availability of space" in establishments that would want to lend their resources for this political activity.
In Cebu, two villages -- barangays Pari-an of this capital city and Pitogo of Consolacion town -- participated in the pilot mall voting.
Residents of Pari-an cast their ballots at the Robinsons Galleria in the North Reclamation Area here and those from Pitogo went to SM Consolacion.
Meanwhile, the regional election official said they will resume paying poll workers who served the recently concluded BSKE in the region on Friday and hoping to finish the distribution of the honoraria for teachers and non-teaching personnel on the same day. (PNA)
