The three-day local absentee voting for the May 2022 polls starts Wednesday, April 27.
Under the LAV, government officials and employees; personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police; as well as members of the media, including their technical and support staff, are allowed to avail of local absentee voting.
This is as long as they are duly registered voters, whose registration records are not deactivated; and will be temporarily assigned to perform election duties or to cover and report on the conduct of elections in places where they are not registered voters.
Data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Committee on Local Absentee Voting showed that out of the 93,698 applicants, 84,357 have been approved.
Those who applied are from the Philippine Army, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police, Dep Ed, Comelec, Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine Coastguard, Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Information Agency, Bureau of Fire Protection, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Philippine Military Academy, Culion Hospital, National Power Corporation, Public Attorney's Office, and Media.
Comelec Commissioner Garcia said for PNP, AFP and other government offices, it is the head of office who will conduct the voting.
"He will be the one to distribute to the local absentee voters their ballots, then the voters will accomplish the ballots, after that give it back to the head who will collect all outer envelopes containing the accomplished ballots, then transmit it back to the Election Contests Adjudication Department (ECAD)," he said.
For media, they will be voting at the local Comelec offices, where they filed their applications to avail of the local absentee voting.
The counting and canvassing of votes, he said, will be on May 9 at 7 p.m. and will be done by the CLAV.
"The venue will be at the 3rd and 4th floors of the Bureau of Treasury , here at Palacio, all candidates will be notified so they can send their watchers to observe," said Garcia.
Among the local absentee voters are Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan and Commissioner Aimee Neri.
LAV participants are set to vote for president, vice-president, senators and party-list representatives.
The Comelec set the local absentee voting period from April 27 to 29, 2022.