The Senate lived up to its promise to approve priority measures as it passed on second reading the Senate Bill 2972, allowing early voting for members of the media, detainees, inmates and law enforcers including members of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
The measure also allowed the early voting in the election hotspots including in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where 57 people have been massacred while on their way to the filing of certificate of candidacy.
â€I’m confident that the bill will be approved on third and final reading by Monday next week,†Sen. Richard Gordon, the bill author and father of modernization in the Philippines, said after the bill approval on Wednesday night.
Gordon said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has been given authority until March 10 to determine the date of the early voting.
â€Once it will be approved on third and final reading on Monday, it will be immediately forwarded at the bicam where I expect smooth passage,†Gordon said.
The House of Representatives approved on Tuesday on third and final reading its own version of the bill, House Bill 6928.
Gordon explained that the results of the early voting will not be counted during the actual counting and canvassing of the results of the country’s first automated national and local elections on May 10 this year.
The early voting bill known as ‘An Act Allowing Early Voting in National and Local Elections†was filed last December as proposed by the Comelec. (PNA)
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