Comelec set to hear petition for prisoners' polling places

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to hear on Monday the Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) petition to establish special polling places for prisoners all over the country. CHR Commissioner Leila de Lima will present oral arguments before the Comelec en banc on Monday to defend her commission’s petition to set up polling precincts within or near detention areas. “We want Comelec to come up with appropriate guidelines to facilitate and encourage voting by these people deprived of their liberty," De Lima said in a text message to GMANews.TV. The commissioner said the Comelec should approve the CHR’s petition because it only upheld the basic right to vote of about 23,000 detainees who registered for the 2010 elections. “All these years, detainees who are not otherwise disqualified from voting had been forgotten by the concerned authorities, hence, disenfranchised. That’s a violation of their basic right to suffrage," she said. The CHR filed earlier this month a petition before the Comelec asking the poll body to set special poll precincts in or near detention centers to enable prisoners to exercise their right to suffrage in 2010. In the said petition, the CHR cited Section 117 of the Omnibus Election Code, which states that “any person who transfers residence to another city, municipality or country solely by reason of his … confinement or detention in government institutions in accordance with law" is still eligible to register and vote. The Voters Registration Act of 1996, however, disqualifies any person who has been sentenced to have committed “any crime involving disloyalty to the duly constituted government such as rebellion, sedition, violation of the firearms laws or any crime against national security" from voting until five years after serving the sentence. - ANDREO C. CALONZO, GMANews.TV