Extending voters' registration for polls

EDITORIAL

The Kabataan party-list group has questioned before the Supreme Court last Wednesday’s deadline imposed by the Commission on Elections for registration of voters for next year’s midterm elections.

           

In a 19-page petition for certiorari and mandamus, members of Kabataan asked the SC to order the pollbody to extend the period of registration up to Jan. 12 next year.

           

Petitioners said the Oct. 31, 2012 deadline set by Comelec violated Republic Act 8189 (Voter’s Registration Act), which allows voters to register daily during regular office hours before “the period starting 120 days before a regular election.”

           

They said this 120-day prohibitive period before the polls next year starts on Jan. 13, 2013, which means Comelec should still register voters before that date.

The last day of listing should thus be Jan. 12 next year, instead of yesterday, the youth group, which has one representative in the House, they said.

           

Petitioners explained that this rule was upheld by the SC in its Dec. 15, 2009 ruling on an earlier petition filed by Kabataan Rep. Raymond Palatino and other militant youth groups.

           

They warned the poll body that unless it extended the listing, it would commit “the same grievous unconstitutional and illegal error it had committed when it set the registration deadline on Oct. 31, 2009” for the May 2010 presidential elections.

           

“This error was corrected and reversed by the Supreme Court in Palatino v. Comelec, which declared null and void the setting of the Oct. 31, 2009 deadline, and directed the commission to proceed with dispatch in reopening the registration of voters and holding the same until Jan. 9, 2010,” Kabataan said.

           

The group said it is clear in the law and the SC ruling that voters should be given the widest opportunity to exercise their constitutional right of suffrage.

           

“It is thus our most sincere prayer that the honorable commission extend the deadline of the voter’s registration to the statutorily mandated deadline, which is 120 days prior to the regular election, which in the case of the May 13, 2013 elections would be Jan. 12, 2013,” it said.

The deadline set by the poll body, therefore, is an “unconstitutional exercise oflegislative power,” they argued.

           

“Thus, the said unconstitutional acts of respondent Comelec in issuing and implementing the assailed resolution smack of outright arbitrariness on the part of said respondents,” read the petition.

           

With this, petitioners asked the Court to nullify Comelec resolutions No. 9149 and No. 9542 fixing the deadline for the filing of applications for registration of voters.

           

Members of Kabataan who filed the petition were James Mary Terry Ridon, Vencer Mari Crisostomo, Vanessa Faye Bolibol, Isabelle Therese Baguisi, Cleve Kevin Robert Arguelles, and MarjoharaTucay.

           

“This petition is about the exercise of a basic right upon which the fabric of any democracy is founded – the right of suffrage,” they said.

           

“The fate of several millions of first-time youth registrants and voters in the May 10, 2010 elections who shall be disenfranchised of their basic right of suffrage shall be at the mercy of respondent Comelec,” Kabataan president and general counsel Terry Ridon added.

           

The SC, however, will not be able to tackle the petition until Nov. 13 when the justices resume full court session after a two-week holiday break.

           

Meanwhile, Comelec Chairman SixtoBrillantes said the voters were given ample time to sign up for the 2013 polls since the registration started in May 3, 2011 or one and a half years ago. Brillantes added the Comelec must come up with the list of voters soon enough so as not to affect other preparations. 

           

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez  said the Election Registration Board (ERB) is the one tasked to review and decide on petitions for exclusion filed against an applicant for registration and petition for inclusion lodged by disqualified voters.

           

There may be validity in Kabataan’s plea. Disenfranchising thousands, if not millions of voters from voting is not a good example of democracy. This early, pundits are saying, the Comelec should do its job judiciously as they seem to work only six months before every election.