The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is targeting to come out with its final guidelines for the conduct of the 2022 national and local elections amid the Covid-19 pandemic by the last quarter of the year.
Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas said they‘re still in the process of consolidating their draft protocols for campaigning, canvassing, filing of candidacy and counting of votes for the next elections.
Abas said among the issues they would be deciding would include the ban on face-to-face campaigning by candidates as proposed by Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon.
“As of now, Comelec still has no official policy on this,” Abas said during an interview with PTV on Tuesday.
Another scheme they will also consider is to limit only the number of people in voter precincts to just five at any given time to minimize the risk of infection.
“We will also limit the [poll] watchers of politicians [allowed in the voting precincts] and of course we will strictly implement health and safety protocols like wearing of face masks and face shields,” Abas said.
He reiterated the upcoming plebiscite in Palawan, which they will conduct on March 13, 2021, would serve as their “test case” on how well they be would be able to implement the said anti-Covid protocols.
The final protocols will be subjected to the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF) before it is finalized, Abas said.