Comelec to hold mock elections Saturday

MANILA - The Commission on Elections is all set to conduct its mock elections in some 10 areas nationwide tomorrow.

Chairman Sixto Brillantes said teams and equipment have been deployed to the provinces. The mock poll will happen from 7am to 7pm in 2 polling centers in Quezon City using the actual registered voters in those precincts.

In other areas in Manila and in the provinces, mock polls will happen only from 7am to around 10am.

Set up time for all precincts tomorrow is at 6am, simulating the actual Election Day scenario.

Brillantes will open the day at a polling precinct in UP IS and move to Bagong Lipunan ng Crame by midday where he will give a press conference.

A random manual audit will be conducted towards the end of the day at a place to be announced by Comelec.

Today, Comelec presented a run through and set up of the mock poll precincts at the project management office in manila.

They hope that voters will particpate in the mock polls to allow them to test the system.

The Commission on Elections will conduct full blown mock elections in two barangays in the 4th District of Quezon City, in the National Capital Region: Barangays UP Campus and Bagong Lipunan ng Crame. From seven in the morning until seven at night, real voters from 11 precincts - totalling 1,639 potential ballots - will troop to the polling stations and give the nation a preview of the May 13, 2013 National and Local Elections.

On a smaller scale - with fewer participants and shorter voting periods - the mock elections will be mirrored in the 5th District of Manila, and in Iriga City and the Municipality of Bato, in Camarines Sur; Dumaguete City and the Municipality of Sta. Catalina, in Negros Oriental; Cagayan de Oro City and the Municipality of Initao, in Misamis Oriental; and the Municipalities of Bongao in Tawi Tawi, and Buluan in Maguindanao, both in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. 50 voters from each of these places will be casting their mock election ballots, from 7 to 10 in the morning.