Comelec: Go out and register for 2013 polls

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes yesterday reiterated his appeal to qualified voters to go out and register for the 2013 polls.

Brillantes said the voter’s registration has been going on for more than a year now and the Comelec does not intend to extend it when it ends on Oct. 31.

Oct. 31 is also the last day for those who need to transfer registration and have their voter’s registration activated.

Comelec offices are open for registrants from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the 2010 elections, there were 50.7 million registered voters.

Meawhile, the opposition bloc in the House of Representatives yesterday hit the Comelec for “farming out” various poll functions, which it said could lead to massive cheating despite the automated voting system.

House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, in particular, cited the decision of the Comelec to buy the 82,000 old precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines of Venezuelan supplier Smartmatic, which recently lost its license from Dominion Canada, the owner of the machines’ software.

“Notwithstanding the Comelec’s lack of P1.8 billion for the purchase, and despite the strong objection of two separate advisory boards and the proposal of infotech experts for Comelec to instead hold a public bidding to come up with better machines and prices, the Comelec decided to go on with the purchase of the PCOS machines,” Suarez said. – With Paolo Romero