Comelec-Cotabato urged to monitor 'multiple registrants'

COTABATO CITY -- Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani–Sayadi has urged the city’s Commission on Elections (Comelec) to closely monitor its early voters’ registration procedure following the reported sudden influx of new registrants.

“My request is for Comelec office to watch on people registering as city voters well. In fact, they are not from here,” Sayadi said during a press conference held Tuesday at the city hall.

Sayadi said she made the request following reports that there are people from neighboring Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces registering as new voters in the city.

Comelec has set the early voters registration from July 2-Sept. 29 this year based on Comelec Resolution 10392 or the “Resumption of the System of Continuing Registration of Voters Pursuant to Resolution No. 10166 and Republic Act No. 8189 for the May 13, 2019 National and Local Elections.”

In a meeting on Monday, the mayor said City Election Officer Michael Igne has assured her of “safety nets” against multiple registrants in the voters’ master list.

“One of the safety nets according to Atty. Ignes is the biometric fingerprint registration system to which every voter must undergo, and I believe him on that. But I insisted that continuous monitoring is a must” she said.

Based on existing election records, this city has 103,530 registered voters out of 299,000 population.

Meanwhile, the election office in Maguindanao has reported a gradual turnout of registrants in the ongoing early voters’ registration across the province.

Lawyer Udtog Tago, Maguindanao provincial election supervisor, said they have required new voter registrants to produce a National Statistics Office-accredited birth certificate upon registration.

“This is to prevent future flying voters or multiple registrants from entering our voters’ list based on our past experience,” Tago said.

He said they are also relying much on the much-improved Comelec biometrics system to determine spurious registrants.

“The biometric results are forwarded to our Comelec head office in Manila to further determine double registrants,” Tago stressed.

During the recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls, the Comelec-Maguindanao office has delisted more than 3,000 residents for having multiple voters' registration.

Tago said the province has a total of 634,323 registered voters. (PNA)