Section 172Sec./Art. 172

Persons Allowed in and Around the Polling Place. - During the voting, no person shall be allowed inside the polling place, except the members of the board of inspectors and their substitutes, the watchers, the representatives of the Commission, the voters casting their votes, the voters waiting for their turn to get inside the booths whose number shall not exceed the number of booths and the voters waiting for their turn to cast their votes whose number shall not exceed forty at any one time. The watchers shall stay only in the space reserved for them it being illegal for them to enter places reserved for the voters or for the board, or to mingle and talk with the voters within the polling place.

It shall be unlawful for any regular policeman or peace officer or any armed person belonging to any extra-legal police agency such as special agents, confidential agents, temporary police, security guards, security agents, special police, and all other kinds of armed or unarmed extra-legal police to enter any polling place and no policeman or peace officer shall be allowed to enter or stay inside the polling place except when there is an actual disturbance of the peace and order therein.

However, the board of inspectors may, if it deems necessary, make a call in writing, duly entered in the minutes thereof, for the detail of a policeman or any peace officer for their protection or for the protection of the election documents and paraphernalia, in which case, the said policeman or peace officer shall stay outside the polling place within a radius of thirty meters near enough to be easily called by the board of inspectors at any time, but never at the door, and in no case shall the said policeman or peace officer hold any conversation with any voter or disturb or prevent or in any manner obstruct the free access of the voters to the polling place.