Comelec delists 21,733 voters in Baguio City

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY — The local office of the Commission on Elections here disclosed more than 21,733 voters in the city’s 128 barangays were delisted for their failure to cast their respective votes in two succeeding elections.

The deactivation of the aforesaid number of voters came following the ongoing registration of voters for the May 2013 local elections.

Comelec officials claimed the deactivated voters were registered voters but failed to vote twice, specifically during the Oct. 25, 2010 synchronized barangay and SangguniangKabataan (SK) elections and the first-ever automated elections for the presidency in May 2010.

Aside from the deactivation of voters who are not interested to participate in the conduct of elections, the Comelec is also cleaning its records from those who already died or transferred to their new voting places either in the city or in other places in the country.

The Comelec is also locating double registrants through the assistance of its central office which is now implementing the automatic fingerprinting in order to determine the presence of double registrants so that they will also be delisted from the list of voters by the next political exercise.

In order to put back their names to the active list, deactivated voters must visit the nearest election office in their area and signify their intention to be brought back to the active roster so that they will be able to exercise their right of suffrage in the next political exercise by May 2013.

Comelec officials are appealing to qualified voters and those who were deactivated to avail of the ongoing registration of voters which is expected to end October next year so that they will be able to actively participate in the succeeding political exercises and have their votes counted for their chosen candidates.