Comelec-7 Eyes More Malls for Voting Centers in 2025 Elections

The Commission on Elections in Central Visayas (Comelec-7) has recommended expanding mall-based voting centers to more malls in Metro Cebu for the upcoming 2025 national and local elections.

Comelec-7 director Lionel Marco Castillano said that the pilot test areas in the recent Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) were successful and convenient for voters.

Castillano said that he hoped that more malls would join SM Malls and Robinsons Malls as voting centers in 2025, including the Gaisano Group and Ayala Center, “if they are willing to offer their malls.”

“We were pilot area because our (Comelec) chairman planned that we will impose this in 2025,” Castillano said during a press briefing.

“We want to widen our scope (in 2025). Maybe just like our mall voters registrations, we could include the Gaisano Group and others.”

In the BSKE, two malls participated in the pilot test of mall voting in Cebu: SM Consolacion for voters in barangay Pitogo in Consolacion town, and Robinsons Galleria for voters from barangay Pari-an in Cebu City.

“Maybe next time in 2025, this may be wider in scope in line with the Commission’s mission and vision of enhancing the voting experience,” Castillano said.

Col. Erwin Rommel Lamzon of the Joint Task Group Cebu of the Philippine Army said that it was easy to provide security coverage in the malls. Lamzon visited the mall voting sites and said that voters had a very good voting experience inside these commercial establishments.

Castillano said that mall voting did not cost any government funds. The sites were offered for free by the establishments.