Voter registration resumes on Monday – Comelec
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) resumes on Monday the system of continuing registration of voters for the 2019 synchronized local and national elections.
Comelec Resolution 10392 sets the period for filing of application for registration as voters for a period of 90 days from July 2 to September 29, 2018.
Registration will be conducted from Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays. On the same dates, Comelec offices around the country will also entertain applications for transfer/transfer with reactivation, reactivation, change/correction of entries/and including/reinstatement of records in the list of voters.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that registration of voters shall be conducted nationwide, except in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.
“It is the duty of the Commission to conduct regular voter registration in order to enfranchise and enlist qualified voters nationwide, with the exception of Marawi City, Lanao del Sur in light of the current situation in the area,” Jimenez said.
He also reminded that applications for registration should be personally filed at the Office of the Election Officers (OEOs) of the city, district or municipality where the applicants lived.
The Comelec will also conduct satellite registrations during this period, wherein field officials go to villages (barangay), public plazas, schools and other public places to register voters. In such offsite registrations, preference shall be given to members of the vulnerable sector such as indigenous peoples (IPs), senior citizens, and pregnant women.
Section 8 of Republic Act (RA) 8189 or The Voter’s Registration Act of 1996 provides for the system of continuing registration of voters.
It states: “ The personal filing of application of registration of voters shall be conducted daily in the office of the Election Officer during regular office hours. No registration shall, however, be conducted during the period starting one hundred twenty (120) days before a regular election and ninety (90) days before a special election.”
Meanwhile, Jimenez also said that the Comelec has suspended the issuance of voter’s identification cards amid moves by Congress for the establishment of a national identification system for all Filipinos.
But Jimenez advised voters who registered on 2012 that they may still claim their voters’ ID at the local Comelec offices where they have registered.
According to Jimenez, there were still thousands of unclaimed IDs even as he reminded them that a voter’s ID was not required for voting. WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
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