Comelec to tap 987 teachers as electoral board members

By Paulo DS. Papa

NO less than 987 teachers will serve as electoral board members in 329 precincts in Naga City during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections on October 30, this year.

Atty. Maico Julia Jr., Comelec-Naga election officer, said that about three months before the election period, Comelec has already readied the 329 public school classrooms which will operate as voting precincts during the election day.

On election day, the teachers are mandated to work from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. They are the ones who will conduct the manual counting of votes after election hours.

Section 264 of the Code decreed that: “Any person found guilty of any election offense under this Code shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years and shall not be subject to probation.”

In addition, it says that “the guilty party shall be sentenced to suffer disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of the right of suffrage. If he is a foreigner, he shall be sentenced to deportation which shall be enforced after the prison term has been served.”