Comelec moves voters' registration to May 1

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Elections has rescheduled the resumption of the continuing registration of voters for the 2013 elections from April 1 to May 3.

Cebu City north district election officer Marchel Sarno said the Comelec en banc had issued Resolution 9168 promulgated last March 22, extending the scheduled start of the continuing registration of voters to give poll personnel sufficient time to prepare the forms.

“The COMELEC cited the need for its Regional Election Directors to have sufficient time to procure the application forms and deliver the same to the offices of their respective Provincial Election Supervisors,” Sarno reads the Comelec order.

According to Comelec officials, they have recently ordered the rushing of the distribution of voters’ registration application forms to its field offices, delegating the authority to the regional election directors to procure the said application forms for use in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez explained the Comelec is decentralizing the procurement of registration application forms hoping that it will make the procurement as well as the delivery of these forms more efficient.

But Jimenez said the Comelec officials thought that this also means that the regional directors will need a little more time to carry out the procurements.

Sarno asked the media to help them disseminate the information about the postponement of the scheduled continuing registration of voters. “Maikog ta sa mga tawo nga mahago lang unya pag-ari sa Comelec apan nauswag diay ang petsa.”

Cebu City is one of the country’s vote-rich cities with 517,798 registered voters and it is already expected that the figure will greatly increase as a result of the continuing registration in preparation for the 2013 local elections.

It was learned that the city’s Comelec south district has a total of 280,505 registered voters, while the north district office has 237,293 registered voters.

Those who also wish to transfer their registration from one precinct to another can make it starting May 3.

Qualified to register for the elections are those who are 18 years old, including persons who are above 18 years old but are not yet registered with the Comelec ever since.     (FREEMAN NEWS)