MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said it estimates that about 50,000 minors registered as voters in the ongoing general registration of voters for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, however, said the poll body has figured out a solution to exclude the minors from the final master list of voters. Brillantes declined to give details until after the process is complete.
"Di naman ganon kalakihan. Malaki na kung mag exceed ng 100,000, 50,000 in 5 provinces about 10,000 each," he said.
He said the Comelec will use automated fingerprinting to weed out illegal registrants from the voters' list.
Brillantes also noted there was only one incident of violence. The Comelec expects to finalize the list within the week, saying it does not intend to extend the registration in the region past the July 18 deadline.
The Comelec chief said the poll body may allow the satellite registration in Manila of voters from ARMM who are currently in the capital region for studies.
Brillantes said so far, about 940,0000 have registered as the general registration entered its 8th day. He believes the final number of registered voters will be at least 1.2 million.