Lawyers, police as BEIs in Lanao Sur special polls

Because teachers refused to serve as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in the volatile Lanao del Sur province in southern Philippines, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will deploy its own lawyers to carry out the teachers' tasks in the special elections next week. In its recently-promulgated Resolution No. 8965, the poll body said "Special Action Officers consisting of selected officers, preferably lawyers of the commission, shall be assigned as election officers and chairmen of the Board of Canvassers." The Comelec declared a failure of elections in the seven Lanao del Sur municipalities after teachers, fearing poll violence, did not show up in their respective schools on May 10. The special elections for Lamba-Bayabo, Masiu, Bayang, Lumbaca-Unayan, Marogong, Sultan Dumalondong, and Tubaran will take place next June 3. Aside from the Lanao del Sur towns, special elections are also set for a precinct in Poblacion, Glan town in Saranggani, a precint in Buenos Aires, Pagsanghan town in Western Samar, seven precincts in Al-Barka, Basilan, and two precincts in Maluso, Basilan. Police officers from other Mindanao regions are also being trained as special BEIs on stand-by for the Lanao del Sur special polls. “These trainees shall undergo training on the operation of the [PCOS] and procedures for voting and counting," the resolution said. By June 1, the final testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan or PCOS machines should be finished and the machines delivered not later than June 2, the poll body added. —VS, GMANews.TV