Deactivation decreases number of voters for barangay, SK elections

CEBU, Philippines – The Commission on Elections noted a decrease in the number of registered voters for the coming synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections com-pared to the last May 10 national elections because of the deactivation of voters who have failed to vote twice.

The poll body noted a slight decrease in the number of voters for the Barangay elections while the SK voters have gone down by 46-percent in spite the inclusion on the list of the new registrants.

Provincial election supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said that from the 2,430,049 registered voters during the last elections in Cebu, including the highly urbanized cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu, the number went down to 2,364,257 or a decrease of 65,792.

The registered voters for the SK decreased by 46.20 percent compared to the previous SK elections in 2007. Castillano said that from 122,710 voters in 2007 they have only recorded 101,157 for the October 25, 2010 elections.

"Migamay gyud ta karon compare niadtong May 10, 2010 elections," Castillano said.

He explained that the decline in the number of registered voters was caused mainly by the deactivation of those who have failed to vote in the last two elections. Castil-lano said that under the rules those who have not successively voted twice shall be delisted from the master list.

Castillano said they have also implemented the automated fingerprint identification, wherein multiple registrants and those who were dead voters are automatically dropped from the list. (FREEMAN)