COMELEC: Detainees May Vote

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) declared that the disenfranchisement of detainees will end this year as they will be allowed to cast their vote for the 2010 Elections. COMELEC’s plan to let detainees vote is the first time in the history of the country.

COMELEC is working with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to ensure that detainees can practice their right to vote. Part of the BJMP’s job is to give COMELEC the actual number of detainees that it holds in their prison. Personnel of BJMP will also be tasked to ensure that the voting process will run smoothly.

According to COMELEC, prisons that have a large number of detainees will have special polling precincts that are complete with polling machines and manned by special board of election inspectors (BEI).

Detainees Retain Their Rights

Detainees or persons that were imprisoned while undergoing trial and is not yet convicted of any crime retains their civil and political rights according to the law. Included to those rights is the right to vote. This principle is applied also applied to those suspected of any crime but is on bail. Those who are convicted by legal courts as guilty of any crime lose their civil and political rights and are not allowed to vote.

In the past elections, detainees right to vote is being ignored by the government. Because of this, their right to vote is violated and detainees joined the ranks of the disenfranchised segment of the population.

Manipulation Feared

Various groups feared that the detainees may not fully enjoy their right to vote because they may be forced to vote the candidates chosen by the jail administrators. Detainees may become institutionalized because of their incarceration and their jailers will take advantage of it. It is feared that detainees may be coerced by their jailer to vote a candidate either by intimidation or bribery.

COMELEC, however, ignore those fears and assure the public that election inside the prisons will be untainted by cheating or manipulation.