DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The Comelec in Negros Oriental has assured the public that, even without the so-called Book of Voters, resumption of registration of voters in the province will proceed as scheduled, starting May 6.
Provincial Election Supervisor Eddie Aba made the assurance even as he admitted that without the Book of Voters, the Comelec offices in the different towns and cities of the province will be facing some difficulties in the continuing registration.
The Book of Voters refers to the compilation of all registration records in a precinct. These books have been retrieved recently by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) in relation to a protest for a manual recount filed by former 1st district Rep. Jerome Paras against incumbent Rep. Emmanuel Iway, the winner in the May 13, 2013 polls.
In the past week, HRET representatives have started collecting 361 ballot boxes from the 1st district for the manual recount after Paras questioned the credibility of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines used in the automated mid-term elections.
Aba, however said the Comelec offices in Negros Oriental will find ways and can manage to carry out the continuing voters' registration even without these books.
The Book of Voters contains vital information needed for the Comelec to update its records of registered voters, such as names of those that need to be deleted for having failed to vote in two consecutive polls or voters who are already dead, Aba told The Freeman.
During a courtesy call of the HRET at the provincial COMELEC office last week, Aba told the team, headed by a certain Jason Sanchez, if it was possible that they omit bringing with them the books of voters.
However, this was not possible as it was explicitly ordered by the HRET that these should also be included in the collection of election paraphernalia for the recount, Aba said.
The absence of the books of voters will bring cause inconvenience to the election officers especially when they need to do some "cleansing" of the voters' lists, but Aba said they have no choice but to turn these voluminous documents over to the HRET.
The HRET, however, promised to return the books after the recount although Aba said it could take several months or years before the protest will be decided upon. (FREEMAN)