ALL is set for the May 9 national and local elections for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)-administered Zamboanga City Jail (ZCJ).

Senior Jail Officer 2 Rey Laurence Comprendio, ZCJ information officer, said Friday, May 6, that 448 PDLs are qualified to vote on May 9 national and local elections.

But Comprendio said the PDLs can only vote candidates seeking national positions like president, vice president, senators, and partylist representative.

The polling precinct at the ZCJ will be manned by a Special Election Board (SEB) under the supervision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

"There will be no counting inside the jail as no vote counting machine (VCM) is assigned for he detention facility," Comprendio said.

"The SEB will bring the filled up ballots to a nearby polling precinct and feed it to the VCM to be counted," he added.

The polling precinct where the ballots of the PDLs is at a school located about 150 meters away from the detention facility.

Comprendio said the voting time for the PDLs is from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

He said the voting at the jail facility will be compliant to existing minimum health protocols since the city remains under Alert Level 1. (SunStar Zamboanga)