Poll registration deadline set Oct. 31

EDITORIAL

Despite a survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showing around 9.7 million voters nationwide have yet to undergo biometric registration, it seems the Commission on Elections is taking its own sweet time in not disseminating deadline for registration is Oct. 31 and that voters who fail to submit for validation will not be allowed to vote in May 2016 elections.

The poll body’s officials, it seems, are busy cooking other matters like Smartmatic, they don’t see the importance of holding more intensive information dissemination or registration drives or utilizing the media to air the matter.

The poll, taken from June 5 to 8, showed 76 percent or 46.6 million registered voters had their biometrics taken while 16 percent of the respondents have not.Comelec officials disputed the SWS survey saying only 3.1 million voters didn’t have biometric data, but then, true or not, registration or information drives are inadequate.   

Under Republic Act 10367, a voter must have registered and have his biometrics, including photograph, fingerprint and signature, taken by the Commission on Elections.

The number of registered voters whose biometrics has not been taken was highest in Metro Manila at 27 percent, followed by the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao at 16, 17 and seven percent, respectively.

By class, more respondents from Classes A, B and C have yet to have their biometrics taken at 20 percent, Class D (17 percent) and Class E (9 percent). The survey also showed that youth voters are less enthusiastic about participating in next year’s polls.

Only 59 percent among respondents aged 18 to 24 had their registration validated, 14 percent have yet to be validated while 28 percent have yet to register. Around 82 percent of older voters had their registration validated, 18 percent have not and at least seven percent have yet to register.

An estimated 4.7 million have yet to register, the poll also showed. The SWS survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults, consisting of 300 each in Metro Manila, balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

It has sampling error margins of plus or minus three percentage points for national percentages and plus or minus six percentage points each for Metro Manila, balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

To our readers, register now as the deadline is sooner than you think.