Citizens with COVID-19 and those under quarantine heading to vote on Wednesday will cast their ballots directly into regular ballot boxes instead of separate boxes or bags, as was the case during an early voting window last week. 

The National Election Commission(NEC) announced the revision following an emergency meeting held on Monday morning. It had faced strong criticism for poor management of voting procedures for COVID patients and those under quarantine taking part in early balloting of the presidential election.

The NEC said that patients and those under quarantine will be able to vote the same way as other voters after 6 p.m. Wednesday, when voting for the general public ends.

COVID-19 patients and those under mandatory quarantine had complained of long wait times when they went to vote on Saturday. They also raised concerns of possible electoral fraud, as their ballots were not submitted in the same ballot boxes as the general public. 

They were permitted to come to polling stations for early voting between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday but had to cast their ballots inside makeshift polling booths. Some of the votes collected from the booths were later carried via baskets and cardboard boxes to be manually combined with the ballots of general voters.