On May 10, the Philippine will mark not only its first automated election but also the day when inmates are allowed to vote for the first time, the Commission on Election (Comelec) said Thursday. More than 23,000 Filipino detainees in 414 jails nationwide will join the 50,723,734 Filipino voters to vcast their ballots in the polls, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said. “This is a first in our history wherein detainees will be able to vote,” said Sarmiento, who heads the Comelec Committee on Detainee Registration and Voting. He said not all prisoners are qualified to vote, but only those whose cases are still being heard by the court, those who are serving a sentence of less than one year and those who have been convicted but are currently on appeal. Sarmiento said only three countries in the world allow their detainees to vote – Australia, United Kingdom and Canada. Last year, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) petitioned the Comelec to allow qualified detainees to vote in the May 10 polls, arguing that every citizen's right of surfrage is assured in the Constitution and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As of last year, the Philippines had 58,121 inmates, according to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. Not all of them are allowed to vote because under the penal code those who are convicted of a crime are deemed suspended from holding public office and from enjoying their right of suffrage. The Voter's Registration Act of 1996 also provides that any person who has been sentenced by final judgment to be imprisoned for not less than one year or ajudged to have committed any crime “involving disloyalty to the duly constituted government such as rebellion, sedition, violation of the firearms laws or any crime against national security” shall be disqualified from voting. But such felons will automatically reacquire their right to vote five years after serving their sentence. On May 10, Sarmiento said the Comelec will set up a polling center in detention centers with more than 100 detainees.
