MANILA -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has discovered 43,000 double and multiple registrants in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Armm) and Region 4-A (Calabarzon).
With the help of the biometrics and automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS), the information and technology department (ITD) of the poll body found out that some deliberately registered twice or thrice.
The biometrics system, which was used in the registration for the 2010 automated polls, stores a voter's personal information, picture, signature and his thumbprints.
Aside from Armm and Calabarzon, Comelec is also looking into the National Capital Region (NCR) area where they suspect that the same offenses were committed by registered voters.
Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the poll body is planning to authorize its ITD to remove them from the official list of voters.
“Why would you register multiple times? This is very unusual. In other words, they registered in different precincts,” said Sarmiento.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, those who will be proven guilty of registering multiple times may face one to six years imprisonment without probation and disqualification from holding public office. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)