An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the extension of the voting hours in the May 2022 polls is almost sure already.
"It's almost sure that it will be extended. We will still discuss how long is the extension," Comelec Commissioner Antonio Kho said in a forum organized by the Ateneo School of Government Monday, May 10.
"It would be extended probably up to 10 or even 12 (hours)...it depends because we have to consider the teachers also," he added.
"Chances are it would be a one day election but extended period. Probably additional two to three hours," said Kho.
The voting period is usually eight hours or from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Kho said they are also planning to limit to 800 voters per clustered precinct.
"For 2022 elections, we plan to lower it back to 800 per clustered precinct or even lower depending on the availability of our vote counting machines (VCMs)," he said.
"Our voting machines would be subjected to refurbishment. We don't expect the around 97,000 VCMs to be okay. Some of them, I would presume, will not be at par so we are looking at the possibility of acquiring additional machines," he added.
The poll official, meantime, said they are also mulling the possibility of assigning several days for several positions during the filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC) this October.
"We would just assign several days for several positions. Let's say for president, vice president, senator probably two days. For local officials, another number of days so they wont go all at once in our election offices," said Kho.
He assured the public that the poll body is doing everything to ensure a safe and honest election.