AN OFFICIAL of the Commission on Elections-Davao (Comelec) remains optimistic that the voting process for the October 28 barangay polls will be fast despite of the manual voting procedure.
Comelec acting regional director lawyer Tomas Valera, in a phone interview with Sun.Star Davao Friday, said: "Sandali lang ang voting process kasi hindi naman marami ang bobotohin ng mga botante. I suppose, matagal na siguro ang ten minutes niyan and as early as five minutes tapos na yan, (The voting process will be quick since the voters only have a few positions to vote for. I suppose the maximum time would be 10 minutes; they can even be done in five minutes)."
Valera also said the ballots will only be composed of one blank intended for the name of a voter's chosen punong barangay and seven blanks for the barangay kagawads. Thus, voters should have a list of their preferred candidates already to avoid delays in the voting process.
The regional director also advised voters to get the names of their chosen bets right and to write the names neatly and eligibly as Board of Election Tellers (BETs) identified by the Department of Education (DepEd) may not credit a ballot if the names are mistaken and the handwriting are not clear.
"The appreciation of ballots is one of the issues for BETs as they might get confused if the names are not readable or if the names are not right. So I am advising voters that, if possible, get the full name of candidates and write it in bold," Valera said.
He also cited that in a case of over voting, the first name filled up in the punong barangay will be the only one counted as well as the first seven names for the barangay kagawads.