MikeLigalig.com

The Commission on Elections on Tuesday warned candidates in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to observe the poll body's guidelines on premature campaigning or risk being disqualified in the October polls. 

Director James Jimenez, COMELEC spokesman, said the commission's men are making rounds in every village nationwide to check for campaign posters that have pictures of barangay officials who have already filed their certificates of candidacy.

"Right now we are more focused in premature campaigning. We received several reports that some candidates have already spread their posters," Jimenez said.

He also said the COMELEC, through the local governments, are also monitoring fund raising activities including bingos and lotteries in barangays. He said such activities are prohibited under the Omnibus Election Code.

Jimenez also reminded barangay candidates of election guidelines on sizes and number of posters and allowed expenses of each candidate per voter. He said each candidate are only allowed to spend P3.00 for every voter; the allowed pamphlet size is 8 1/2 inches by 14 inches and a poster's allowed maximum size is two by three feet.

He added that each barangay candidate is only allowed to have 10 common posters in every common poster area.

Jimenez said COMELEC is expecting at least one million candidates to register for the October 29 barangay ang Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

The deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy is October 18 midnight.

The COMELEC spokesman denied reports that there are three million flying voters in the COMELEC voter's lists. He said the three million voters are actually new registrants for the SK elections.

He said there are at least 51 million voters for the barangay elections.

Jimenez said the Philippine National Police has assured that the coming elections will be more peaceful than the last mid-term national elections.

He said only four percent of the 41,995 million total villages nationwide are being considered as "areas of concern" or hot spots.

The Philippine National Police has been on heightened alert status since the start of the election period last September 29.

abs-cbnnews.com

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