This is great. How can the presumption of innocence be maintained when the government is party to the prevention of these people from doing something that is both their duty and right.
SAYS COMELEC
A first in RP: 23,000 inmates to vote in May polls
MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that over 23,000 inmates nationwide will vote for the first time in the May 10 automated elections—with some to vote in special polling places inside detention facilities.
Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who also chairs the committee for detainee registration and voting, told INQUIRER.net that the poll body resolved that detainees—who reside and have registered as voters in the district or municipality where the detention facilities are located—could vote in the country’s first attempt in automating the elections.
At least 23,657 detainees or 43 percent of the total 54,866 detainees eligible to vote in 414 facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) have registered with the poll body between July and October 15, Sarmiento said.
“Under the law, a person can vote in the elections if he has resided in the municipality where he intends to vote six months prior to the elections and at least a year in the country. Detainees who are not convicted of any crime or punished by the Revised Penal Code, penal laws, or regulations are still presumed innocent of their accusations and retain their right of suffrage,” said Sarmiento.
via A first in RP: 23,000 inmates to vote in May polls – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.