No extension for ARMM re-registration - Comelec

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines -- There will be no extension for the re-registration of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which ends Wednesday, the Commission on Elections said.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez issued the statement to put an end to rumors that there would be a 10-day extension.

The Comelec is worried that some voters may believe the rumors and not re-register on the last day thinking that there will be an extension.

The re-registration was undertaken to cleanse what election officials earlier said had been proven to be a voters’ list bloated with thousands of fictitious names.

Jimenez said their latest data showed that at least a million voters had re-registered themselves while the Parish-Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting placed the turnout at 1.4-1.5 million voters.

The Comelec spokesman said these figures were “basically what we expected.”

Since the original voters’ list contained around 1,778,817 names, “expected natin pag natapos (re-registration) dapat bumaba ‘yan (we expect that after the re-registration the number will go down),” Jimenez said.

Since the re-registration started on July 9, the Comelec also noted a substantial number of minors who participated in the exercise.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes estimated their number to be 50,000.

However, although the minors were allowed to sign up, their names will be excluded from the ARMM voters’ master list.

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