IATF approves nationwide mock polls on December 29

The government's task force on COVID-19 has approved the conduct of nationwide mock elections on December 29, Malacañang said Friday.

Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said that holding the national mock polls was allowed “to ensure the safe and effective conduct” of the May 2022 elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier ran a voting simulation in San Juan City on October 23.

Former Comelec commissioner Luie Guia suggested last week that the ratio of voters per clustered precinct in Eleksyon 2022 should be around 500 to 600 per clustered precinct given the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"With one optical scanner [per precinct], there were several people who will line up, so that [ratio] is my estimate," Guia said.

Lawyer Ona Caritos of election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections or LENTE, for her part, suggested that the Comelec reschedule the mock polls for a higher turnout and better assessment of how to conduct May 2022 polls safely amid the pandemic.

"A lot of people are on vacation around that time [December 29]. Maybe the Comelec can reschedule the mock polls to the first or second week of January so that more people will be able to participate," she said.

However, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said last Saturday it would be “safe” to accommodate up to 800 voters for every clustered precinct.

“Obviously, we want to reduce the number of voters per clustered precinct, but we also need to increase the number of [vote counting] machines as well…However, right now, it looks like we cannot get additional machines,” he said in a radio interview. — VBL, GMA News