Elderly given priority
to vote in Gumaca

Registered voters took longer than expected to cast their vote on May 10 in one voting center in Gumaca, Quezon but residents were not complaining as most patiently awaited their turn to vote. The Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) had given priority to senior citizens over its younger population, who all had the same idea of trooping to the polls as early as 6 in the morning.

As a result, long queues littered the hallways of Gumaca West Elementary School, one of the largest voting centers in the town with six barangays clustered here. The elderly themselves had to line up before entering the precincts, some accompanied by their relatives to assist them in voting.

The move follows the COMELEC’s Minute Resolution No. 10-0326, which extends ‘preferential treatment to senior citizens, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities on election day by designating polling places located at the ground floor of the voting centers, or by providing them express lanes, if possible.’

Former Quezon Representative Wigberto Tanada of the 4th district, who counts himself a member of this vulnerable sector, was thankful to have the voting expedited for senior citizens. While he did not require help in selecting the candidates of his choice, among them his son and congressional candidate Erin Tanada, few senior citizens who were seated beside each other were observed asking among themselves about how to vote.

With the BEIs preoccupied with other matters in the precint, some senior citizens had no choice but to seek assistance from one another. According to the COMELEC, only the BEI, a relative within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity or any person of his or her confidence from their same household can provide assistance to the elderly.

A 75-year old retired doctor was heard whispering ‘Gibo’ to a relative who was assisting him in filling out his ballot. He lauded the new system of voting because it was short, and which possibly took faster than making his way to the voting center.

Save for a few raised voices in one precinct due to the long wait coupled
with the heat of the noon sun, there were hardly any traces of irritation as voters here did not mind the idea of letting the elderly go first. In allowing the aged to cast their votes before the rest of the voting population, regular voters were given numbers that represented batches to indicate the sequence when they could vote.

This allowed them to either wait in the designated waiting areas or any other part of the voting center to decongest the hallways leading to the precints. Other voters were observed to head out of the voting center after being advised they would only get to vote after lunch including this reporter.

But while the elderly were spared the long wait, mothers, and sometimes fathers and uncles with young children were not. They had brought their young to the voting centers with no one to tend to them at home, fanning and entertaining them as best they could while awaiting their turn to vote in the cooler areas of the school.