Disabled and illiterate persons should be able to vote without being assisted by other persons.
With this in mind, Councilor Eden “Candy” Medina of the 2nd district of Quezon City urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to design a procedure that will enable the disabled and illiterate persons to vote without being assisted.
Medina said that since the 1907 elections under the American colonial government until the barangay elections last October 2007 or for a period of 100 years, the system of election in the Philippines was manual.
She said that for the first time, Comelec used automated machines last May 2010 elections, and it proved to be successful.
But, Medina said that illiterate and disabled persons followed the old procedure of asking assistance from a third person in filling up their ballot and trusting their personal right of suffrage to another person.
Medina said that if there were initiatives for the automation of the elections, there must also be a way to improve and provide a procedure that will best work for the illiterate and the disabled members of our country. Divine/Maureen Quiñones, PAISO
