Registration of voters in CV, other regions resumes today

Aside from Central Visayas, registration of voters in regions 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and the Carraga Administrative Region will resume today. COMELEC 7 director Salud Aligañga told The Freeman that Central Visayas is all set for the resumption of registration here, which would end next year. Luzon and other parts of the Visayas resumed the registration last May 16.

Election offices in the cities and municipalities would be open to register new voters in preparation for the 2007 elections.

The COMELEC central office had ordered for the postponement of registration in region 7 and several areas in the Visayas and Mindanao due to lack of preparation and training of election officers and lack of registration forms.

"While it is still unsure if the barangay elections would push through this October, we would resume the registration of our voters up to next year," Aligañga said. She said under the law, registration of voters is not allowed 120 days or four months before the scheduled elections, adding that if election will push through this October, there should be no registrations anymore. "We have not yet received any order from Manila about the postponement of the barangay elections. For the meantime, we would just ready the voters' list; we would submit it to the election board if the barangay elections push through," she said.

Aligañga said that although the House of Representatives had already approved the postponement of the barangay elections last February, the Senate has not yet decided on the matter.

Earlier, Local Governments Secretary Angelo Reyes declared that the postponement of this year's barangay elections is already final, saying the country is not yet ready for another election.

He said that pushing through with the elections this October would derail the country's continuing recovery from the fiscal crisis it experienced last year.

In February, the members of the House of Representatives also voted to postpone the barangay elections to May 2008. House Bill 2296 proposed that the polls be moved in line with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's cost-cutting measures.