5 to 7 a.m. of election day is reserved voting time for Seniors, PWDs

MANILA, Philippines — Senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and pregnant women will have voting precincts to themselves from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. during next year’s election day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday.

According to Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia, the voting precincts will be exclusively available to persons meeting any of the three conditions, but it does not mean that the two-hour window is the only time they can cast their votes.

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“All of the precincts in the entire Philippines would allow seniors [citizens], persons with disabilities, and pregnant women to exclusively vote from 5 in the morning until 7,” Garcia said in an ambush interview following a special satellite voters’ registration in Quezon City.

The Comelec Chair said the poll body expects some 12 million senior citizens and 600,000 PWDs to vote in May 2025’s midterm elections nationwide.

He also clarified that senior citizens and PWDs will not be required to cast their votes in Emergency Accessible Polling Places (EAPP), meaning they are free to choose where to exercise their right to suffrage.

Comelec’s vulnerable sectors office previously explained that EAPPs are voting places “temporarily established in a building used as a home or residence of PWDs and/or SCs [Senior Citizens].”

The poll body’s Chair added it is “very important” to bring registration to where the Filipinos are, especially for senior citizens and PWDs.

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“How will they be able to go to the regular registration sites? It is very important to bring the registration to them,” he said.

As for the number of newly registered voters, Garcia said there are already some 1.3 million new voters starting as of Thursday since voters’ registration opened on February 12.

“It appears that we will be exceeding our estimate of 3 million,” Garcia said.

Voters’ registration will close on September 30.