Senior citizens, PWDs can vote in Comelec-approved shopping malls

Some senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) will now be able to vote with ease as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has set up four pilot accessible polling places in select shopping malls.

 

According to a report on GMA News' Unang Balita on Monday, this is the first time Comelec will establish accessible polling places exclusive for PWDs and senior citizens under Republic Act 10633.

 

One of the accessible polling places will be located at SM City Cebu, which will cater to 97 senior citizens and three PWDs of Brgy. Mabolo, the report said.

 

Cebu is considered to be a vote-rich province in the Philippines, the reason why it was used by Comelec to be a testing area.

 

Under Comelec Resolution No. 9797, other accessible polling places are:

 

"Only persons with disabilities and senior citizens residing in the barangay where accessible polling places established are located may avail of the right and opportunity to vote there in," the resolution said.

 

The Comelec resolution for the October 28, 2013 barangay elections will serve as a prelude for the full implementation of RA 10633 on May 2016 elections.

 

In the mid-term national elections last May 13, senior citizens and PWDs struggled to vote as polling precincts were packed like sardines.

 

In a GMA News' report, a 66-year-old woman fell and was unable to make her way to her precinct even with help from her 13-year-old companion at the President Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Batasan Hills, Quezon City. 
 

Unlike other polling precincts, there were no express lanes for senior citizens at the said school.

 

Several PWDs also exercised their right to vote last May despite hurdles in their physical capabilities and the situation at polling precincts.

 

Voter Nelson Nuñez, who lost his arms in a workplace incident, was one of millions and thousands of disabled voters who cast their ballots on May 13, but just one of a handful who got indelible ink not on a fingernail but on a toenail.

 

Last year, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued Resolution No. 9485 to make voting easier for PWDs.

 

As of June 2012, Comelec said there were at least 24,573 PWDs who registered and updated their records. However, this number represents only six percent of the estimated 400,000 Filipino PWDs eligible to vote, according to Fully Abled Nation, a Disability-Inclusive Elections initiative. —Danessa O. Rivera/KG, GMA News