Comelec urged to extend ARMM registration

BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – Local officials here urged the Commission on Elections to extend the 10-day registration of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Officials said the extension should be done to accommodate all qualified registrants in Tawi-Tawi.

Officials observed that the slow registration system the Comelec is using is preventing many residents from registering within the 10-day prescribed period.

The ARMM registration period for the 2013 midterm elections is from July 9 to 18.

Tubig Mampallam Barangay Chairman Abidin Nuruddin, whose area has two Voting Machine Registrations (VMR), said that the 200 persons or registrants target capacity of the machine per day is far from being met.

He said that one machine only processed about 21 registrants in the whole morning of Wednesday, July 11.

“If this is the system, the over 2,000 voters in this barangay cannot be accommodated in the prescribed period of 10 days,” Nuruddin said.

“Therefore, the Comelec should consider an idea of extending the period of registration so that all qualified voters can avail [themselves] of the general registration,” he stressed.

Felipe Gallardo and Santos Magaymo, augmentation election officers for Barangay Lamion and Poblacion, respectively, were asked to comment if 10 days are enough to register all voters in Tawi-Tawi.

“We will try to do our best to accommodate all those who want to register but we cannot assure [the public] whether there will be [an] extension unless [there is] a new resolution from the higher-up mandating for the registration to be extended.”

Line starts at 2 a.m.

Although the registration ran smoothly with a high turn-out of registrants in the first 4 days, some early registrants expressed various concerns.

For example, most people lined up as early as 2 a.m. just to get a number and be included in the 200 quota for the day’s processing.

Yet Babaylyn Kano-Omar, official of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, said that the 10-day period is enough to accommodate all of those who want to register.

Earlier, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr visited Tawi-Tawi. He said that the ARMM general registration is aimed at cleansing the bloated and padded lists of voters.

Some observers, though, expressed concern that if the registration period will not be extended, many Tawi-Tawians will not be able to register to vote in the 2013 polls.

Comelec reports said that 23,315 became registered voters in the first two days of registration. – Rappler.com 

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