TEMPORARILY CLOSED. Voters wait for their turn to register at the Comelec office in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on Sept. 7, 2021. Comelec Provincial Supervisor, Lawyer Ian Lee Ananoria, said in an interview Monday (Sept. 20, 2021) that the Municipal Comelec Office has been temporarily closed for disinfection against Covid-19 until Sept. 22. (Photo courtesy of Comelec-San Jose de Buenavista)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in this capital town is temporarily closed for disinfection starting Monday until Sept. 22.
Lawyer Ian Lee Ananoria, Comelec-Antique provincial supervisor, said in an interview they were informed that one of their municipal staff was a first layer contact of an index case of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), while two others are second layer contacts.
“We have to temporarily suspend the voter’s registration for three days for disinfection,” he said.
He said the first layer contact, who is asymptomatic, reported to work on Sept. 15, so he mingled with the two other employees who became his second layer contacts.
The three of them, while undergoing the 14-day home quarantine, will be temporarily replaced by the other municipal Comelec employees so that the voter’s registration would not be derailed.
Ananoria said this is the first time that a municipal election office in Antique had been closed during the voters' registration period as a result of Covid-19 contact tracing.
Meanwhile, he said he is asking the Antique Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Covid-19 and the municipal IATF in the 18 towns to assist the Comelec during the last day of the voters’ registration and even during the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) from Oct. 1-8 in ensuring the strict implementation of health protocols among registrants and candidates.
“As we had experienced in the past registrations, there were lots of voters who came to register on the last day so we would like to request for assistance from the IATF to deploy police personnel and barangay officials to assist us implement the Covid-19 health protocol,” he said. (PNA)
