Registered voters from two barangays in Negros Oriental provincial capital, Dumaguete City, Barangays Tabuc-tubig and Poblacion 3, will experience mall voting for the May 2025 midterm elections.

Lawyer Ian Michael Macaraya, Commission on Elections (Comelec) city election officer told the Philippine News Agency yesterday that following the successful piloting of the mall voting in some parts of the country in the previous polls, the Comelec has now approved this scheme.

In Negros Oriental, this will be conducted at the Robinsons Place shopping mall in Dumaguete City.

“We have chosen the two barangays with a combined total of three clustered voting precincts because they have the least number of registered voters,” he said. “We do not want to disrupt mall operations. That is why we need to limit the number of mall voters.”

The estimated number of mall voters is less than 3,000 although Comelec could not yet give the specific number pending the approval of the poll body’s Election Registration Board of new voters, he added.

Macaraya said they would soon coordinate with the barangay captains and send out formal announcements to the registered voters informing them of the transfer of their designated voting precincts.

He assured that no voter would be disenfranchised as the entire voting population of these barangays would be transferred to the mall.

Macaraya said there would be three vote-counting machines and three sets of Board of Election Inspectors to cater to the mall voters according to their designated clustered precincts for a seamless process. (PNA)