Comelec to support bill requiring voters to register through biometrics

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will support a bill to be filed in Congress that will require voters to register under the biometrics system for the 2013 polls to address the problem of retail cheating and prevent ghost and multiple voters from taking part in elections.

In a press briefing, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said some 50 percent of all registered voters might have to be stricken out from the list if they fail to have their biometrics identification taken for the 2013 elections.

“We are telling the people without biometrics to come forward and give us your biometrics so we can complete this AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System),” he noted.

Under the AFIS, Comelec would be able to eliminate double and multiple registrants from the voter’s lists. 

Melo, however, clarified that voters in the 2010 elections would not yet be asked to register under the biometrics system.

The Comelec yesterday signed a contract with the joint venture of Unison Computer System Inc., Lamco Paper Products Co. Inc. and NEC Philippines Inc. to supply some P1.5-billion AFIS machines that will enable the poll body to cross match the biometrics of voters like their fingerprints and signatures.

The Comelec had begun using data capturing machines to get the photographs, signatures and fingerprints of voters in 2004 but it has no machine to cross match the data.

The Comelec asked the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to allow government and private workers to register even on weekdays and on official time.

In Resolution 8669, the Comelec sought “to request DOLE to issue the appropriate circular/guidelines urging private employers to allow their employees to file their applications for registration, transfer / reactivation, changes / correction / inclusion / reinstatement / of entries of registration records even during weekdays and to consider their temporary absence from work on official time.”

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez claimed the Comelec has also issued Resolution 8668 which sought the same privilege for government workers.

Jimenez said this “shows the Comelec’s resolve to empower the broadest number of workers, both in private and public sectors, by making sure that they will be able to cast their votes in the 2010 elections.”