ABOUT 2,000 absentee voters in Negros Occidental will start voting Wednesday, April 27, at the designated precincts in the province, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.Provincial Supervisor lawyer Roberto Salazar said the voting will be done manually unlike that for regular voters on May 9, 2022 where vote counting machines (VCM) will be used.These absentee voters include government officials, Comelec personnel, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, as well as mediamen, among others.They need to cast their votes early as they will be assigned in far places, Salazar said.The voting will be done inside military camps and they can only vote for national positions from president, vice president, senators and party-lists, he said, adding that absentee voters are not allowed to vote for local candidates.The ballots for absentee voters will be submitted to the Comelec’s national office.In Bacolod City, only two individuals have applied for absentee voting on April 27 to 29, 2022.Acting Bacolod Comelec officer lawyer Revo Sorbito said voters are not allowed to bring a cellular phone or to photograph their ballots.Meanwhile, Comelec-Bacolod will allocate rooms for the voters who exhibit symptoms of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) during the election day.Sorbito said Bacolod City has a total of 45 public schools as voting centers for the upcoming elections with 450 clustered precincts.”Our voting centers should have a classroom to separate the voters who have symptoms of Covid-19,” he said, adding that voters will undergo body temperature check and if they have a fever, they will be brought to the isolation room.In order to prevent the spread of the virus, Sorbito stressed, the Comelec will strictly enforce the minimum health protocols like wearing the face masks and social distancing.Sorbito also said they already delisted more than 2,000 names from its voters’ list in the city.Their names have been removed by reason of death, transfer to another district or municipality, double registration, and failed to vote in two consecutive elections, he explained.On May 7, the Comelec will also conduct the final testing and sealing of VCMs in various polling centers in Bacolod City.Meanwhile, Comelec-Negros Occidental reiterated that the ultimate list to decide if you can vote or not is the one posted on precincts, specifically the Posted Computerized Voter’s List certified by the Election Registration Board with the watchers as witnesses.Salazar made the clarification amid complaints that they cannot enter or access at the Comelec official website or precinct verifier to check on the individual voting precincts for the May 9 elections.