Registration of voters to resume April 1-Oct. 31

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday asked those who are qualified as voters to sign up when the continuing registration of voters resumes from April 1 to Oct. 31.

In Resolution No. 9149, the Comelec said it is also during this period when the agency will validate the registration records of voters.

The Comelec said it is its policy “to establish a clean, complete, permanent, and updated list of voters through the adoption of biometrics technology (photograph, fingerprints and signature) in the registration process.”

The registration complements the poll body’s efforts to cleanse the voters’ list through its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) program.

Under the program, the biometrics data of voters are cross-matched to identify those who have double or multiple registrations.

Applications for registration, transfer of registration records, change and correction of entries in the registration records, reactivation of registration records, and inclusion of registration records and reinstatement of name in the list of voters can be personally filed with the Office of the Election Officer in the city or municipality where the applicant resides.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said satellite registrations will be established to “ensure wider voter participation.”

Registration booths will also be set up in detention centers starting Jan. 12, 2012 to ensure that detainees can exercise their right to vote.

Jimenez said any Filipino citizen who is at least 18 years old, a resident of the country for at least one year and in the place where he intends to vote, for at least six months immediately preceding the election may register. –Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star)