KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 1 Nov) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) here has turned down 600 registrants, the election registrar telling them they could no longer be accommodated because of the computers’ limitations.
City election registrar Diosdado Javier said their computers can only list 400 registrants in a day.
The applicants that lined up since October 30 numbered to a thousand, Javier said.
Around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, however, a number of applicants were still lining up, waiting for their names to be called.
Javier said they have earlier informed the applicants they could only accommodate 400 registrants. “Yet, they refused to listen,” he added.
He said the Comelec should not be blamed for the situation.
The registration of voters, Javier stressed, started two years ago. “It was extended until Oct. 31. Yet, as expected, our tendency is to wait for the deadline and so the problem comes in,” he lamented.
But there is hope, he pointed out.
“We can submit a petition at the Comelec central office with their names as petitioners that they would be allowed to register for the 2013 elections. But the decision, however, depends on the commission,”
he explained.
Many of the registrants are teenagers who would reach 18 at the time of the elections.
Beverly Jane Lasid, 17, said it was only last Tuesday that she was able to list up.
“My free time was only during the semester break,” she said.
People can have so many alibis to justify the delay in their registration, noted Javier. “But we did not fail to remind them that there is ongoing list up and that it would end in October 31.” (Malu
Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)