Comelec moves voter registration to Oct. 31 from Dec. 15

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has moved the deadline for registration of voters to October 31 from December 15. Comelec Resolution No. 8585 said the original deadline of voters’ registration was moved to an earlier date in order “to give us more time to prepare for the full automation of the 2010 elections." But despite the earlier deadline, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body is not expecting a lower number of registrants as this would be complemented by the recent opening of registration during Saturdays and holidays. The decision to move the registration earlier is important to the Comelec in order for them to get the final number of registered voters in an earlier period to give them more time to print the exact number of ballots, according to Jimenez. “If we don’t have the number of voters, there’s no way of knowing how many ballots to print. Comelec doesn’t want to print excess ballots," Jimenez said. The poll official added that preparations for the first ever fully automated electoral system in the country largely depend on the final list of registered voters. With the final number of voters known, the Comelec said it would be able to know how many precincts will be operational as well as the number of Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines and other election paraphernalia that would be needed come May 2010. - GMANews.TV