Mock elections prove 50% voters disenfranchisement By Aycth S. de la Cruz 05/01/2010

Mock elections prove 50% voters disenfranchisement

By Aycth S. de la Cruz 05/01/2010 Some 30 to 50 percent of the voters will surely be disenfranchised, as proved by the mock elections conducted by the Commission on Elections at the UNTV in Quezon City Thursday April 29. Center for People Empowerment in Governance said the mock elections confirmed CenPEG’s previous warnings that the May 10 election is bound to disenfranchise from 30 to 50 percent of the registered voters. It pointed to Thursday’s end-to-end mock elections held to accommodate 1,000 voters casting their votes from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. that allowed only 503 voters to vote with three rejected ballots. The number of actual votes cast within the 11-hour voting time corresponded with earlier estimates of CenPEG based on two separate days of mock elections -- the Feb. 6 mock polls held in six sites and the March 25 JCOC mock polls held at the Senate. “The results of all the mock polls should all the more compel the Comelec to extend the voting time from 11 hours to 16 or even 20 hours to accommodate 1,000 voters,” Bobby Tuazon, CenPEG director said.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100501hed1.html