AS THE Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election nears, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is intensifying its preparations, along with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Army.
The poll body, along with its counterpart in the police and the military, will lead the peace covenant signing starting today.
The whole-day activity is for all candidates who are seeking for barangay positions, from village chief to councilmen, and the SK posts.
The signing of the peace pact is to ensure peaceful, clean and honest elections as it should be non-partisan.
The bets will also attend the forum.
Part of the discussion is the "do's and don'ts" during the campaign period, which is set on May 4 to 12.
Would-be village and youth leaders are mandated to follow election rules like avoid overspending and vote buying.
Local officials were also reminded not to engage in the barangay and SK elections.
Barangay and SK polls are considered highly-contested since the candidates belong to one community.
This is why the poll body and security forces are closely monitoring potential hotspot areas.
In fact, the police have already identified some barangays in four towns in the province.
For the May 14 elections, Negros Occidental registered 14,672 candidates who will seek the Barangay posts and 8,876 for SK positions.
Negros Occidental has the second most number of candidates among the provinces in Western Visayas, next to Iloilo.
Like everyone else, we hope to have orderly and peaceful elections.