Comelec gets ready to purge current voter’s list

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that it would purge voters from the voter’s list who had not voted in the past two elections. Comelec spokesperson James Arthur B. Jimenez said that there were 53,000 voters who were deactivated or taken off the voter’s list in Bacolod. "We [will tell] these deactivated voters that they [will] need to re-register if they wish to vote in the next elections. This method is actually a part of efforts to cleanse the voter’s list," Mr. Jimenez said in a statement issued on Sunday. The Comelec has been criticized for not actively pursuing the purchase of biometric data scanning machines to cleanse the voter’s list. The Comelec said that machines that cross-match the biometric data, or fingerprints, of a voter are expensive and that they would rather focus on getting the elections automated. Mr. Jimenez said that deactivated voters have until the end of the year to register again. Continuing registration has yielded 45,000 new registrants in Metro Manila alone. No national numbers have yet been released by the Comelec but the poll body expects around one to two million new voters for the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, Comelec Chairman Jose Armando R. Melo said in a separate interview that of the 17 vendors with optical mark reader technology, around a third have expressed interest in bidding for the automation of the 2010 national elections. "Many of the companies interested are South Korean, American and Indian. But we have no preference yet, not even for those companies whose technology we have used before," said Mr. Melo. He added that bidding can commence once the budget is approved and the terms of reference are released. Even companies that have previously won contracts with the Comelec may also bid. The Comelec has decided to use the optical mark reader technology, which scans marked ballots over the direct recording electronic system, which uses touch pads. The Comelec has been given a supplemental budget of P11.3 billion for the automation of elections. Automating the national elections has been planned since 1998 but several failed bids have prevented its installation. – Emilia Narni J. David, BusinessWorld