CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga – – The forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in this province is expected to be peaceful and orderly with no ‘election hotspot’ identified.
Provincial Election Supervisor (PES) Dexter Bary Cawis reported there is also no report from the field of any presence or threat from armed groups that may disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections in the province.
In the recent joint command conference called by COMELEC-Kalinga, the security and deployment plan in the province for the May polls had initially been instructed to all police station chiefs.
The final security order, however, will be tackled in the May 11 joint regional command conference in Baguio City, Cawis disclosed.
For the coming May 14 polls, COMELEC-Kalinga had recorded 397 candidates for punong barangays and 2,232 for Barangay Kagawad while 368 had filed for SK Chairperson and 582 for SK Kagawad.
The Provincial Election Office is conducting province-wide candidate’s forum as part of its information drive to brief and orient candidates on election rules.
The activity, Cawis explained, assures peaceful and orderly conduct of elections by helping candidates avoid any election offense.
Among the common campaign violations previously noted is the posting of campaign materials. Here, COMELEC had designated one common poster area in every barangay with registered voters up to 5,000 and two common poster areas per barangay with registered voters of more than 5,000. **By Larry T. Lopez
