COMELEC may ban selfies and handshakes in the 2022 elections.
COMELEC — The Commission on Elections may ban “selfies” and forms of physical contact such as handshakes and hugs in the 2022 elections.
The poll body revealed last November 10 that voting hours during the May 2022 national and local elections will be extended from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm.
For the first time in Philippine history, there’s also a possibility that hugs, handshakes, kisses, and other forms of physical contact during in-person political campaigns and rallies will be prohibited.
Commissioner Marlon Casquejo told the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms that the COMELEC en banc had approved of the resolution that would add 1 hour to the voting period which was implemented during the mid-term elections in 2019.
In making the decision hours before the Lower House proceedings, the Commission on Elections, in effect, rejected proposals to extend voting for another day.
The suffrage and electoral reforms panel chaired by Negros Occidental 4th District Representative Juliet Marie De Leon Ferrer had been conducting briefings on preparations for the 2022 election exercise.
Ferrer welcomed the actions taken by the poll body as it prepared for the first election wherein voters and political candidates were under the threat of infection of the deadly coronavirus.
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In the same briefing given to lawmakers, Casquejo laid down proposed rules to be followed for campaign activities of political candidates while the Philippines remained under the threat of the pandemic.
Among those to be presented for approval of the Commission on Elections were different restrictions in the conduct of political campaigns during the pandemic.
According to Casquejo, meetings, caucuses, rallies, conventions, and “miting de avance” will follow the category level of restrictions imposed by the national government.
In-person political campaigning such as house-to-house visits will prohibit entrance to any private dwelling even if allowed by the homeowner.
The taking of “selfies” photographs and other similar activities that required close proximity between the political candidates and the campaign staff and the public were also prohibited in the proposed political campaign rule.
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