Voters' registration

Elections 2016 will still be two years from now but if you want to be among those who will choose this nation's next leaders, then please make sure to register now!

COMELEC is calling on all Filipino voters to register. Those who need to correct and complete their previous registration should also register again!

An estimated 9 million voters may not be allowed to vote in 2016 because their records have to be updated with biometrics data. In Cebu, there are 262,653 voters out of 2.54 million registered voters who have to register again, to complete their biometrics data. COMELEC reportedly has sent letters to these registered voters to update their biometrics data which include the voter's digital photograph, signature, and fingerprints.

These voters can have their data updated starting July 1 until the end of registration period in 2015. These voters need to personally appear before the Office of Election Officers in their localities and will have to bring necessary items like  employee's ID with employer's signature, Postal ID, Student ID or library card, senior citizen's ID, SSS/GSIS ID , driver's license, NBI/PNP clearance, passport, or any other valid ID.

Please help campaign in your home, at work and in your community and encourage all to register now. Let us have all qualified voters exercise their sacred right to choose and elect genuine leaders of this country!

If the youth and overseas Filipinos can be mobilized and organized, their sectoral vote can elect our next leaders. This early, potential candidates and their supporters are , for sure, already preparing the groundwork for the 2016 elections.

Prayer teams should also be started this early to ensure honest, peaceful elections, and for genuine public servants to be chosen by our voters.

COMELEC should already be preparing and installing networks , procedures, staff and other details to ensure smooth, transparent, honest and safe elections. They should already anticipate and solve problems and needs that have plagued previous elections.

Effective and comprehensive preparations can result in clean, honest, safe elections at the least expense. Forging solid collaborative networks for transparent elections should also be done this early.

We hope COMELEC professionalizes its service so that voters can have a smooth registration experience, especially those with disabilities, the pregnant, those who bring their infants and toddlers, and the elderly.

COMELEC Cebu, for example, will have to do better than its first registration day experience. They should already anticipate days with heavy turnout and already prepare all the necessary materials that will ensure the smooth and quick registration of the voters. COMELEC Cebu will also have to be more sensitive to vulnerable groups, including those we mentioned earlier.

If COMELEC'S resources are short, before this registration period, they should already have anticipated this problem and should already have creatively tried to look for solutions to solve this problem and other problems as well. 

Voters spare their precious time to exercise their right to vote- COMELEC should be more respectful towards our voters and do their best to ensure comfortable, smooth, organized registration system throughout the country.

With decades of experience behind them, one would expect COMELEC to already be on top of any possible electoral and registration scenario. The problem is not lack of funds and resources but lack of system and creative people committed to ensuring clean, honest, safe , smooth, people-sensitive registration and electoral processes.

Can we expect a more effective, people-sensitive, professional COMELEC in Cebu and all over our country from now on?

We also hope all embassies throughout the world, together with COMELEC, will prioritize the participation of more overseas Filipinos for the registration for and election in 2016.

Go, go, go out and register! Encourage all other qualified voters to do so, too!

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