Those running in the May 2022 polls may have to modify how they will conduct their campaign.
This, as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said there will be "major changes" in the conduct of campaign.
"I guess a lot of people will be in for some scrambling in terms of modifying how dey conduct their campaign because there will be some major changes," Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said in an online forum Tuesday, Oct.26, organized by Stratbase ADR Institute and Democracy Watch Philippines.
He, however, did not say what these changes are.
Jimenez said the public should just wait for the campaign guidelines which is expected to be released this month.
Last May, the poll official said he believes there will still be face-to-face campaigning in the May 2022 polls but with limitations due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Jimenez said they believe it will not be totally prohibited as many have no access to different methods of information delivery.
"What we will surely have are restrictions on ways to campaigning. If before, for example, there is no limit on handshaking, now there will surely be limits," he said that time.
During the forum, the poll official also gave an update regarding their preparations for the upcoming polls.
Jimenez said the refurbishment of the vote counting machines and the hardware acceptance test are currently ongoing.
The local source code review process, he said, is also ongoing at Diamond Hotel in Manila.
"We hope to show the reviewers every aspect of the automated election system. This is an improvement on previous source code reviews because in previous source code reviews, the review was limited to the three components of AES...but now with the 2022 LSCR we are reviewing all aspects of automation," said Jimenez.
"Apart from the LSCR, we are also in the middle of international certification process and we hope that will conclude a little later on in the year," he added.