Multiple registrations bar 3,000 Maguindanao residents from voting

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — The Commission on Elections barred more than 3,000 residents of Maguindanao province from voting Monday for having multiple voters' registrations.  

Lawyer Udtog Tago, Maguindanao's provincial election supervisor, said Monday their names had been taken out from the provincial voters' list days before the May 14 synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

"Some registered in two areas using same names, some many times over, in different areas," Tago said.

He said the delisting process was based on the Comelec's Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Tago said less the multiple registrants, the province only has 634,323 registered voters.

"We are optimistic they will come out and exercise their right of suffrage during the May 14 election day," Tago said.

Security in Maguindanao has been tight since Saturday.

Personnel of the provincial police and the Army's 6th Infantry Division are visible in towns where there are big families vying for leadership of their barangays.

Maguindanao has 36 towns in its two congressional districts.

There are six towns — Sultan Kudarat, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Shariff Aguak, Buluan, Pandag and Mangudadatu — where candidates for barangay chairman, councilors and SK elective posts are running uncontested.

The adjoining Buluan, Pandag and Mangudadatu towns are political bailiwicks of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Mangudadatu, now on his third and last term as governor, said big clans in the three towns agreed to share power by having only one candidate for each position in their barangay and SK governments to forestall rivalries.