Extended voter listup to end Tuesday
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday reminded voters to immediately go out and register, as the extended voter’s registration will end Tuesday, December 29. “The Comelec wishes to remind all qualified voters that they have until tomorrow to register so they may be able to votes in the 2010 elections," said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez. The Comelec said that about two million new voters were expected to register during the extended registration ordered by the Supreme Court. Voter registration originally ran from December 2008 to October 31, 2009. But following the SC’s decision, the Comelec opened up its centers for registration on December 21, 22, 23, 28, and 29 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Comelec said priority would be given to first-time registrants over those who want to reactivate or transfer their registrations during the extended registration period. The poll body said it would post the list of the new applicants on January 4, giving the registrants until January 6 to file an opposition to any of the other registrations. By January 9, he said the Election Registration Board (ERB) will begin their hearings to weed out ineligible registrants. Earlier, the Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said that they will not be printing any additional ballots, making these new registrants like “chance passengers." He said they would not produce extra ballots aside from the ballots that are scheduled to be printed on January 25 based on the number of voters that had registered prior to the SC ruling. There are over 49 million registered voters as of December 10. The ratio of ballot to voter was supposed to be one is to one. Jimenez, however, clarified that additional voters could still vote if there would be “spare" ballots on election day, relying on the usual low voter turnout during the polls. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV