Comelec spokesman not a registered voter

MANILA - Despite being active in the campaign for a high voter turnout on election day, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez will not be able to vote this coming May.

Jimenez confessed his voter's registration has been deactivated because of his failure to vote in the last two elections. He said his work with the poll body prevented him from going to his voting precinct.

Jimenez said he has not been able to reactivate his registration, making him ineligible to participate in the local absentee voting, which is being offered by the Comelec for its employees, other government employees and military and police who will be working on Election Day.

For the first time, the local absentee voting mechanism is also being offered to members of the media.

Jimenez hopes he can be a lesson to other voters to activate their voter's registration. He said he does not have biometrics registration yet---something that has been made mandatory for the 2016 elections by a law passed recently by the legislature.

Nonetheless, Jimenez said the five members of the Comelec: Chairman Sixto Brillantes and commissioners Lucenito Tagle, Elias Yusoph, Christian Robert Lim and Grace Padaca have active voter's registrations.