Election office suspends registration of voters

PURSUANT to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution No. 9509, registration of voters will be suspended on October 1 to 5 to give way for the five-day filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) for all elective positions in the May 2013 midterm national and local elections.

Lawyer Aleli Ramirez, Cagayan de Oro election officer, said the suspension of registration will give way to politicians who will file their COCs along with their supporters who are expected to parade at their office to show support to their candidates.

“Usually, if politicians would file their COCs, there is much fanfare with the supporters so the registration might be disturbed,” Ramirez said.

Registration period for the May 2013 national and local elections has been set from November 2, 2011 until October 31, 2012.

The Comelec has earlier conducted a four-day registration for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the different barangays in Cagayan de Oro on August 11, 13, 14 and 15 this year.

Ramirez said the scheduled registration was the result of the agreed date by both the PWDs and the Comelec in a meeting held earlier in August.

Data from the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that total registered voters in the city reached 225,188 based on the 2010 national and local elections with a total population of 553,966 as of 2007.

Qualified to register are all Filipino citizens who are at least 18 years old on May 14, 2013 and who are not otherwise disqualified by law.

The suspension of registration, promulgated last July 23 by Comelec, was signed by chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr. together with Commissioners Rene V. Sarmiento, Lucenito N. Tagle, Armando C. Velasco, Elias R. Yusoph and Christian Robert S. Lim.

Related to this, the executive branch already agreed to give back the Comelec’s P5 billion savings to augment its P8.4 billion needed budget for the 2013 election.

In a report, Brillantes said the budget concern has already been settled with Malacañang.

The poll body’s budget was earlier cut by P2 billion compared to last year’s budget.

The P5 billion came from the savings after Comelec was able to purchase the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, to be used next year, for only P1.8 billion. The allocation for the machines was pegged at P7 billion.