Voters in Negros Occidental, most of them law enforcers, will participate in the three-day absentee voting for the May 2013 elections starting tomorrow, Provincial Elections Supervisor Wil Arceño said yesterday.

Four hundred sixty-three policemen, soldiers, mediamen, teachers and Comelec employees, who had registered earlier, will be allowed to vote for senatorial and partylist groups only on April 28, 29, and 30, he said.

Thirteen members of the press are registered for absentee voting and will vote at the Bacolod Comelec office within the three-day period.

Soldiers and policemen who registered for absentee voting, on the other hand, will vote in their respective camps, Arceño said.

Meanwhile, he said, all of the 2,044 Precinct Count Optical Scan machines to be used in the May 13 polls in Negros Occidental are now secured by the police in a Bacolod warehouse.

The final testing and sealing of the PCOS machines will be on May 10 instead of May 7 in answer to the request of the police and Army for it to be done closer to the actual polls, for security reasons, Arceño said.

All the ballots for Negros Occidental are also expected to arrive this weekend and will be stored at a warehouse to be secured by the police, he added.

On Monday, Arceño said, final security briefing will be held for the regional joint security group representative.

The Comelec and the law enforcers will keep a close watch on 13 areas on its election watchlist, which includes Escalante City, he said.

On May 13, voting will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Arceño said.

He expects the returns from Candoni that has the least number of voters at 11,895 to come in first in the evening of election day, Arceño said.

The Provincial Board of Canvassers will convene at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod City to await the arrival of the election returns from the towns and cities, he said.

Negros Occidental has 1,574,784 voters, with Kabankalan City accounting for the largest number of voters at 87,845.

Bago City has the second most number of voters with 85,921, followed by Cadiz City with 85,132, he said.*CPG

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