POLL officials in Cagayan de Oro double checked the lists of voters for the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections after they have learned that some applicants for registration submitted not their own birth certificates.
“Naay among nasapon nga gipasa-pasa ang ilang birth certificate sa uban mao nga nag-istrikto gyud mi karon (We’ve caught some who passed their birth certificates around, thus prompting us to be stricter),” said Cagayan de Oro Elections Supervisor Joanne Vallejos.
SK registrants must be 15 to 17 years old, and those caught using other person’s birth certificates apparently wanted to get past the age restriction, Vallejos said.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) personnel also spotted other “suspicious entries” in some submitted documents, which Vallejos said had prompted them to go over the applications again.
“We have to double check everything to find out whether or not some SK registrants are really qualified to vote, and to avoid repetition of this incident,” Vallejos said.
The review would surely delay the registration process, she said, noting that City Comelec office is undermanned.
Around 700 new voters have been recorded three days since the SK registration started. Two hundred voters also registered for the barangay registration.
Deadline for barangay and SK registrations is on August 13 and August 15, respectively.
The registration period starts from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. including Saturdays and Sundays. Registrants are advised to bring any valid ID, except those issued by the barangay, or birth certificate.
There is no final schedule yet for the applications for candidacy but local elections officials said that usually, it is set 10 days prior to the elections. (Annabelle L. Ricalde)