The Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued Thursday the guidelines for local absentee voting involving government officials and employees as well as military and police personnel who are registered voters but who, on election day, may temporarily be assigned to perform poll duties in places where they are not registered voters.

To make sure they will be able to exercise their right of suffrage in the May 10, 2010 elections, they will be allowed to vote for president, vice president, senators and partylist representatives in places where they are assigned to perform election duties from April 24 to 26 in the presence of an authorized Comelec representative.

For this purpose, the head of office, supervisor, or commander shall designate the time and place of voting where the voters shall converge to vote, with prior written notice upon the election officer of the city or municipality.

Local absentee voting will be supervised by the Committee on Local Absentee Voting headed by a Comelec commissioner. It shall receive accomplished applications of the local absentee voting not later than March 7, 2010.

The committee shall supervise the counting of ballots and canvassing of votes, it was pointed out.

The committee shall notify in writing the city of municipal election officer (EO) concerned of the names of voters qualified to vote under the local absentee voting system with a directive to indicate in the list of voters with voting records on the space opposite the names of absentee voters.

After the elections, the committee shall send to all city or municipal EOs concerned a written notice of the voters who actually voted under the system, with a directive to indicate the list of voters with voting records, and on the space opposite their names with annotation: “Voted Thru Local Absentee Voting” to prevent the deactivation of their registration records.

Meanwhile, the Comelec has granted the petition of former Rep. Rodolfo T. Tuazon to declare Alex Caber Tuazon a nuisance candidate and therefore disqualified to run as congressman in the first district of Western Samar.

In a four-page resolution penned by Commissioner Gregorio Y. Larrazabal and concurred in by Presiding Commissioner Rene V. Sarmiento and Commissioner Armando C. Velasco, the Comelec First Division lent credence to the claim of Rodolfo T. Tuazon that Alex Caber Tuazon filed his certificate of candidacy (CoC) to put the election process in mockery or disrepute.

The petitioner said Alex Caber Tuazon who has not previously run for any elective position, has no visible means to conduct a credible, serious, and honest election campaign. He further averred that Alex Caber Tuazon has already left his abode in Western Samar and has moved to Manila with his wife and children, thereby indicating an absence of bona fide intention to run for Congress representing the first district of Western Samar.

The Comelec Second Division likewise granted the petition of Rodolfo T. Tuazon seeking to disqualify and cancel CoC for the first congressional district of Western Samar of Rodrigo Refamonte Tuazon.

Rodolfo T. Tuazon, who is running for the same legislative district under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, charged that Rodrigo R. Tuazon’s CoC would only result in confusion among the voters by the similarity of their names, adding that the respondent only registered as a voter of Calbayog City, Western Samar on November 3, 2009, is only a pedicab driver, has not been elected to any position at any one time, and has no means to conduct and sustain a viable election campaign.

In declaring Rodrigo R. Tuazon a nuisance candidate and therefore disqualified to run, the Comelec Second Divison said the absence of a political platform, party, and machinery shows that he has no bona fide intention to run for public office.