'Voters' registration not extended to Tuesday'
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/31/2009 3:35 PM
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MANILA - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday clarified that the voters' registration deadline for the 2010 elections has not been extended.
"We will not entertain newcomers on Tuesday. We will not give new forms on Tuesday," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told ANC's Dateline Philippines.
Jimenez made the clarification due to reports that the October 31 deadline for the voters' registration has been extended to Tuesday (November 3).
He said the registrations nationwide will end at midnight. By midnight, he said Comelec officers will take down the names of those people lined up 30 meters away from the registration center.
"We will take the names of those within 30 meters of the registration center. We will ask them to come back on Tuesday," he said, adding that people whose names will be taken will be allowed to complete the registration process on Tuesday.
Jimenez said they are doing this because of the power outages that affected voters' registration in several areas in Luzon that were hit by typhoon Santi.
In Quezon City alone, hundreds of people failed to register due to the power outage. The registrants were asked to return later Saturday and wait for the power to be restored in their area.
Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond "Mong" Palatino earlier asked the Supreme Court to extend the voters' registration on Friday.
"We are questioning the legality of shortened voters' registration. According to Section 8 of Voter Registration Act of 1996, registration should be daily and 120 days before election," he said. (Access petition here: http://tinyurl.com/yhyqwov )
"The deadline should be January 9. Congress, not Comelec, has the power to amend a law," he said.
Palatino said National Statistics Office data shows there are 11 million first-time voters, but only 3 million of them have so far registered.
Jimenez said the 3 million mark is actually a sign of improvement since only at least 2 million first-time voters were able to register for the elections in 2007.
Other petitioners were Jade Charmane Rose Valenzuela, Jacqueline Alexis Merced, Ana Katrina Tejero, Kenneth Carlisle Earl Eugenio, and Victor Louis Crisostomo, all first-time-voters who tried but failed to register due various reasons.
They were joined by Alvin Peters, president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP); Vijae Alquisola, president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP); Ken Leonard Ramos, chairperson of Anakbayan; and, Ma. Cristina Angela Guevarra, chairperson of the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP).
At the House of Representatives, Palatino filed three resolutions--House Resolutions 1162, 1443, and 1336--seeking the extension of voters’ registration.
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