Fake registrants found in ARMM voters’ list

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered the cleansing of the voters’ list in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) after discovering 18,983 double and multiple registrants in the region.

In Resolution No. 8423, the Comelec said its Information and Technology Department, through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System matching, uncovered the double and multiple registrants.

“(They) have subsequent registrations and despite the fact that some used different names, it was still verified and established with certainty that the fingerprint imprints belong to the same persons,” the poll body said.

On Aug. 11, the Comelec is set to hold the election of the ARMM governor, vice governor and assemblymen, involving some 1.7 million voters.

Since the premise of credible elections is basically anchored on a clean voters’ list, the Comelec said double and multiple registrants must be purged from the ARMM list.

“The Comelec, in the fulfillment of its mandate to conduct free, orderly, honest, peaceful and orderly elections, must prevent double/multiple voting in consonance with the universal principle of ‘one man, one vote’ by cleansing the list of voters in the ARMM,” it added.

To do this, the Comelec ruled that the “first registration shall subsist and remain valid and the deletion in the subsequent registration/s will not disenfranchise nor deprive voters of their constitutional right to vote.”

But the poll body directed its election officers and the Election Registration Boards (ERB) in the ARMM to observe proper procedures in deleting the double and multiple registrants from the voters’ list.

The poll body ordered its field officials to post the list of the deleted names in conspicuous places prior to the holding of a hearing on March 28. Interested parties may file their objection or opposition on March 26.

The Comelec also wants the dominant majority and dominant minority parties and civic groups to be furnished with a list of the deleted names.