City Comelec still accepting registrants despite lack of forms
This year's turn out of registrants for the coming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 29, 2007 is much higher compared with the registration done in year 2000.
City Election Supervisor Elizabeth Doronila in cable television talkshow Serbisyo Publiko revealed that they have released 16,000 forms for regular voters and 10,000 for SK voters during the original registration period last July 15 to 22.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in a later resolution extended the registration for regular voters from July 24 to 31 and for SK voters July 28 to 29 and August 4 to 5. But Doronila lamented that the City Comelec no longer have forms for those who have yet to register.
Nevertheless, she said they could provide registrants with extra forms which they could reproduce by photocopying.
Regular voters are those aged 18 and above while SK voters are those aged 15 to 17.
Registrants have been crowding the City Comelec office at the second floor of the Iloilo Terminal Market since the start of registration last July 15.
"The turn out is overwhelming. It seems the people have realized the significance of their vote in the coming SK and barangay elections," Doronila said.
Meanwhile, Doronila announced that the public could now file objections over certain registrants at the City Comelec.
She said the objections, if there are any, would be tackled during the hearings to be conducted by the Election Registration Board on August 13, 14, and 15.
Doronila said all applications for registration will still be evaluated by the board.
On the other hand, Doronila said the petitions for exclusion against certain registrants are to be filed in court.
To note, the City Comelec is presently busy attending to registrants processing their biometrics data through their data capturing machine (DCM).
The entering of biometrics data is the final step towards the inclusion of the registrant's name to the Comelec voters list.
The City Comelec has two DCMs which can accommodate 700 registrants each per day.