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Comelec execs say ARMM has 300,000 ‘uncleansed’ voters


At least two officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) admitted on Monday that the list of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) remained uncleansed and bloated during the conduct of the May 14 midterm elections. Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who is assigned in Mindanao, told reporters that the ARMM list remained unclean because “there was no more time to cleanse the list legally through exclusion proceedings." Comelec executive director Jose Pio Joson made the same admission following reports that the results of the canvassing in the province of Maguindanao indicated that the number of those who actually voted was higher than the number of registered voters. Estimates based on Comelec data show that there are about 300,000 double and multiple voter registrants in the ARMM list that was not cleansed by the poll body when it implemented purging of voters’ lists for the midterm polls. Joson explained that the commission failed to weed out this double and multiple registrants not only due to lack of time but primarily because the system they implemented was incapable to do the cleansing of the voters list. He also said the bloated list of voters in ARMM has long been their problem and the commission had not fully acted on it. Joson said that in the five provinces of ARMM namely Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, the number of voters for the past three years ballooned to 50,000 to as high as 60,000. He estimated that Basilan has the most number of double and multiple registrants with 80,000 followed by Lanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi with 60,000 each and in Sulu and Maguindanao with 50,000 each. Before the May polls, Joson revealed that there are a total of 100,000 double and triple registrants in the region who have yet to be prosecuted. There are also those who have pending cases filed against them in local courts. “If we do some matching (of lists) it’s possible that it may even go up since we have not yet completed the matching," Joson told reporters. Sarmiento attested that the unusual increase in the number of registered voters in ARMM more particularly in Lanao del Sur had been raised to him, however they couldn’t do anything about it since the period of exclusion already ended. Sarmiento said the bloated number of voters in Mindanao “is a cause for concern." Records of the Comelec showed that in Lanao Del Sur, nearly all of its 40 towns registered over 10 percent growth in the number of voters. The highest of which are noted in Buadiposo-Buntong with 120.40 percent more voters now than in 2004; Madalum, 105.19 percent; Calanogas, 90.93, Bubong, Marogong, 82.15 percent; Mulondo, 73.91 percent; Sultan Dumalondong, 171.88 percent and Binidayan with 147.78 percent. The remaining towns in Lanao del Sur have 60 t0 20 percent voters population increase. In Basilan, four of its 10 towns recorded increase in voter population and these are Lamitan, 13.43 percent; Lantawan, 17.40 percent; Maluso, 20.95 percent; and Sumisip, 18.66 percent. In Sulu, while no no triple-digit growth rates were registered, 16 of its 18 towns have more than 10 percent increases: Hadji Panglima Tahil, 12.40 percent; Indanan, 19.36 percent; Jolo, 17.44 percent; Maimbung, 22.36 percent; Pangutaran, 15.95 percent; Patikul, 22.90 percent; Talipao, 20.23 percent; Kalingalan Caluang, 29.77 percent; Lugus, 19.72 percent; Luuk, 35.95 percent; Old Panamao 21.91 percent; Pandami, 23.27 percent; Panglima Estino, 22.66 percent; Siasi, 17.92 percent; Tapul, 13.52 percent; and Tongkil, 14.52 percent. In Maguindanao, nine of its 23 towns had voters’ population growths higher than 10 percent. These include Ampatuan, 10.37 percent; Datu Abdullah Sanki, 19.23 percent; Datu Paglas, 12.52 percent; Datu Saudi Ampatuan, 17.78 percent; Datu Unsay, 27.63 percent; Pagalungan, 15.82 percent; Paglat, 43.05 percent; Shariff Aguak (Maganoy), 19.83 percent; and South Upi, 72.70 percent. Meanhile, in Tawi-tawi, Comelec data showed that eight of its 11 towns posted growths more than 10 percent. - GMANews.TV

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