No budget, no-el, says Comelec

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos fears that the May 14 national and local elections might be deferred if Congress fails to pass the trillion-peso national budget for this year.

"If Congress won’t be able to pass the proposed 2007 budget, there will be no elections in May because where are we going to get the money for the holding of the polls?" he said in an interview.

Abalos said the Comelec needs some P4 billion for the Senate and local elections, and that Congress has only allocated P700 million.

"We only got P700 million last year, and what is that amount as against the P4 billion budget we will be needing to finance the coming elections," he said.

However, Abalos said Congress would not allow the postponement of the elections.

"The possibility of having no election is very remote because I don’t think Congress will allow that to happen," he said.

Abalos said he hopes that Congress would pass a new national budget by the end of the month to give the Comelec sufficient time and budget to hold the midterm elections.

"Hopefully Congress would be able to enact a new budget before the end of January because it would be very difficult for us if the budget would be approved later than that," he said.

Meanwhile, the party-list group Abakada Guro yesterday asked the Comelec to extend the registration period for new voters and transferees for another two weeks.

The registration of new voters ended last Dec. 31.

Abakada president Samson Alcantara said thousands of voters were not able to register before the deadline because of distance and time constraints.

"Many employees were unable to register because the law does not require private and government agencies to grant leave to their employees for registration purposes," he said.

The Comelec should grant their request for extension of the registration period because the participation of the great majority of the voters in the electoral process is essential to a true and credible democracy, Alcantara said.