UNTIL Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez published his Twitter post last Friday, saying that the Comelec will not push voters with COVID-19 to participate in the May 2022 elections, we have not really considered the impact this pandemic would have on the political exercise next year.
Jimenez added that “granular lockdown concept should not be used to prevent people from voting or to force [a] failure of elections. The 2022 national and local elections won’t be postponed or canceled. There is no way of framing or asking that question that will make it reasonable or give you a different response.”
‘The concern of opposition leaders, however, is how the poll body will ensure that those in power would not take advantage of the COVID-19 lockdowns in these elections.’
Election campaigns that before meant huge political rallies, caucuses and gatherings with food and money a-plenty will have to be dispensed with in the wake of the pandemic, but still, political leaders will always find a way to disregard the rules.
Medical activist Dr. Tony Leachon said that uncontrolled surges in COVID-19 cases might prompt the use of tighter lockdowns to counter the spread of the coronavirus. He noted that huge gatherings might be banned, and this includes voting in groups or herding voters by the hundreds to the polling precincts, which poses big logistical and health problems with candidates and political parties.
Leachon is one with Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), in pointing out that an early consultation with the Comelec on how to handle the precarious balance between the manner of voting and observing health protocols is in order.
The concern of opposition leaders, however, is how the poll body will ensure that those in power would not take advantage of the COVID-19 lockdowns in these elections. This concern is very much valid, considering that the power to declare lockdowns and stay-at-home rules rests on incumbent local officials.
It will be so easy to prohibit registered voters in areas where the incumbent is weak to leave their homes to vote, using the COVID-19 surge as an alibi.
With the elections several months away, the Comelec en banc should tighten and intensify its preparations and drafting of the rules on voting with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic in mind.
This is because all indicators say that the public health crisis we are experiencing now will still be with us come May, 2022.
