Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) — The government is studying the possibility of holding next year’s elections for more than one day as a strategy to minimize the spread of the coronavirus, National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said Wednesday.
“We are looking at the possibility that the election will be a multi-day election, not a single-day election, so that we can prevent the possible conglomeration of thousands of people in the precincts,” Galvez said in a briefing.
One of the ways they can go about this is phasing by location, he added.
“Maybe geographic ang gagawin po natin [Maybe it can be done geographically]. For Luzon, for Visayas, Mindanao, pwedeng ganon po [like that],” he said. “There are many options how we can guarantee ‘yung safety ng ating mga [the safety of our] electorate.”
He said the NTF and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases are already working with the Commission on Elections in coming up with measures to help reduce viral transmission.
Asked if he thinks there is enough time for Congress to amend election laws, Galvez said he believes so.
“I think we have plenty of time,” he said. “We will collectively plan this with the Comelec and also maybe with Congress.”
The country is facing a fresh spike in COVID-19 infections, including rising cases caused by new and more transmissible variants. On Wednesday, the total number of infected since the pandemic began breached the two-million mark.
The World Health Organization has also confirmed community transmission of the feared Delta variant in the Philippines, which it said is now the dominant variant in the country based on limited whole genome sequencing.
