45M expected to vote in 2010

More than 45 million registered voters are expected to vote in the 2010 elections, an official from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.

Meanwhile, Teopisto Elnas Jr., a director at poll body’s Election and Barangay Affairs Department, added, the voters’ list was being cleansed simultaneously with the registration period.

As of September 4, according to Elnas, a total of 45,487,634 million voters had registered, down from the 48 million who registered for the 2007 midterm elections. He attributed the decrease to deactivation of some five million voters who failed to vote for two consecutive elections.

Elnas said that the Comelec was purging the voters’ list in preparation for the so-called cross-matching that the poll body was expecting to conduct in 2013, in time for full automation of the voters’ list.

From December 2008 to June 2009, the total number of new registered voters reached 2,729,254. More than 100,000 of them were reactivated voters, the poll body’s consolidated quarterly progress report stated.

Region 4-A posted the highest number of registered voters with 6,059,168. The National Capital Region (NCR, or Metro Manila) followed at 5,347,649; Region 3, 5,098,495; Region 6, 3,577,665; and Region 7, 3,523,508.

Even with the seemingly low turnout of registrants, Elnas said that he was hopeful that the voting public would come flocking registration centers before the October deadline for the registration.

Open Saturdays

He noted that the poll body has extended the registration period to Saturday. Elnas said that he has even proposed that the registration time be extended from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. from Mondays to Saturdays to accommodate those who would be coming from offices or schools.

The commission, however, is yet to decide on the matter.

Elnas said that the poll body could no longer extend the registration period, as requested by several groups and sectors.

He rejected calls for a general registration of voters, saying that the Comelec will go back to “square one” if it conducted such registration at this time.

The last general registration of voters was conducted more than a decade ago in 1997. Some groups are saying that the voters’ list would not be cleansed thoroughly until a general registration is conducted again. –Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter, Manila Times