Comelec mulls putting on hold allowing inmates to vote in May

Security, inconvenience of jail guard escorts, and inmates’ safety cited

“It might be a security nightmare.”

Lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde, Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial election officer, said this if the Comelec would still allow jail inmates to vote in the Barangay, SK elections.

Gujilde said the Comelec, however, was looking closely at the situation and would likely put on hold for this election allowing inmates from voting.

He said that unlike the national elections where all the detainees could vote inside the jails, on the May 14 elections, those, who would want to vote, would have to be brought to their respective barangays to cast their votes.

He said that these would involve more jail guards escorting the detainees to bring them to their barangays so that they could vote.

Although there is no Comelec memorandum for this, lawyer Anna Fleur Gujilde, wife of lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde and the Comelec Cebu City South District election officer, said that it would be the rational move to put on hold the jail detainees right to vote for these elections.

Lawyer Anna Fleur Gujilde said without the memorandum, the inmates could be escorted to the barangays where they could vote to exercise their right to vote.

She said that jail voting would be allowed but only to those who reside in the particular barangays where the jails were located, but the others would have to vote on the barangays where they were registered.

She said that it would cause inconvenience for the jail guards, who would escort these inmates and the safety of the inmates would also be a problem.

“Ang concern lang is especially kon daghan ang mag-request ug ang magbantay nila, kanang maoy mag-escort nila, asa sila dapat narehistro (Our main concern is when there will be a lot of requests to vote and their jail guard escorts, who will bring them to their registered areas),” she said.

Lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde, for his part, said that inmates, who would want to do escorted voting, should first get a court approval.

“Depende ra nas korte, walay jurisdiction ang Comelec ana. Ang korte ray mohatag nila og pagtugot nga makabotar sila (It would all depend on the decision of the court. The Comelec has no jurisdiction on that. It will be up to them if they would allow an inmate to do an escorted voting),” he said.
Inmates can only apply for escorted voting if there is a court order that allows them to vote, he said.