SOME 300 first-time voters participated in the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) roadshow in Lapu-Lapu City to learn how to use the Vote Counting Machines (VCM) for the midterm elections in May.
With a huge turnout of participants, lawyer Ann Janette Lamban, Lapu-Lapu City election officer, said their roadshow at the Lapu-Lapu City College in Barangay Gun-ob was successful.
Lamban said she was pleased with the turnout especially since similar activities in some parts of Metro Cebu drew only a few participants.
First-time voters and students were given a chance to vote using the VCM. They were given sample ballots to shade and feed into the machine.
“We oriented them on the integrity of the ballot and how the machine is going to safeguard their ballots and count their votes. They are able to see that the machine even provides them a receipt to show how they voted. We also showed them how a machine invalidates a ballot if it has erasures,” Lamban said in Cebuano.
Meanwhile, the Comelec office in Lapu-Lapu City sent letters to the 53 aspiring candidates in the city to participate in a peace covenant signing on Friday, Feb. 22.
Of the 53 candidates, five are running for mayor while another five are running for congressman of Lapu-Lapu City’s lone district.
Lamban encouraged all aspiring candidates to participate in the peace covenant signing to show to the public that they are promoting a peaceful, honest and orderly election.
A mass will be held before the peace covenant signing. (From GCM of SuperBalita Cebu, JKV)