Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond ‘Mong’ Palatino today said that they will conduct mock polls to help in educating voters about the party-list system and automated election system (AES).

Palatino said that this would be their action to address low partylist and AES awareness as shown by the latest Pulse Asia survey.

In the Pulse Asia survey dated January 22-26 this year, only 7 out of 10 Filipinos are aware of the party-list system, while 7 out of 10 have a little to no knowledge at all on how to vote using the AES.

“We are deeply concerned about the very low awareness turnout. The latest Pulse Asia survey only reflects that there is a great and urgent need to educate our voters, especially our youth and first-time voters, on a massive scale,” said Palatino.

Mock AES polls
The young solon said that they would conduct mock polls in schools, campuses and densely-populated areas starting this week. “But this would be a different kind of mock polls, ” he explained.

Palatino said that their mock polls would focus not on the results but “to give our voters a sort-of rehearsal” on how they would cast their votes in May.

“Sa mock polls na mga ito, pwede pa silang magkamali until they get the hang of it. Practice makes perfect and we will be giving them a chance to practice,” he said.

“We will be conducting mock polls in schools and communities with the objective of demonstrating to them the new process. This is also a good opportunity to teach them that, yes, you only vote for one party-list and that is why it is very important that they know about the party-list system and which party-list to choose,” he said.

Nationwide scope
Palatino also said that they would conduct mock polls especially in the remote areas in the country.

The Pulse Asia survey results show that partylist and AES awareness are lowest in the class E sectors and in rural areas.

“We will try to reach the areas where literacy rate are very low. This is very important because the machines will not accept errors. We do not want our lesser privileged youth and countrymen disenfranchised because of poor voter education,” Palatino said.

Online
The youth partylist will also be utilizing the Internet to promote awareness.
“We are urging and encouraging our online members and supporters to blog, write, or post articles and shout-outs about the partylist system and the AES.

The Internet is a very powerful and easy tool to increase awareness for the youth,” Palatino said.

He said that questions from the public about the partylist system and AES are welcome and may be coursed via their website, http://kabataanpartylist.com, or the partylist’s Facebook (http://facebook.com/kabataan), Friendster (http://friendster.com/kabataanpartylist), Multiply (http://kabataanparty.multiply.com), Twitter (http://twitter.com/kabataancrew) and Plurk (http://plurk.com/kabataanpartylist) accounts.

The Kabataan Partylist website also has a special Voter Education section (http://kabataanpartylist.com/votered/). ###