SOME nine million voters who may have missed voters’ registration deadlines set last October 31 have their final chances as the Supreme Courts tells the elections body: reopen voters registration starting December 21 until January 9.
But reports from the Bohol Comelec office however bared that Election Commissioner and lawyer Eliseo Labaria accordingly said he would await for the officials go signal from higher Comelec office to start the implementation.
Whenever it arrives, the holiday break may well be the perfect time for registering, as the High Court declares null Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution No. 8585.
The resolution fixed the deadline of voters registration last October 31.
Via its nine-page decision, Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales wrotes, the High Court directs the Comelec “to proceed with dispatch in reopening the registration of voters and hold the same until January 9, 2010.”
With the decision immediately executory, the SC cited the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, which says the Congress has determined that the period of 120 days before a regular election and 90 days before a special election.
Such is to give enough time for Comelec to make all the necessary preparations with respect to the coming elections.
The 120-day period starts on January 10, 2010. Thus, the deadline of application for registration of voters should be on January 9, 2010, and not October 31, 2009 which is 70 days earlier than what the law provides.
In Bohol, sometime few months agoi, Kabataan Party-list representative Raymond V. Palatino revealed he has petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the Comelec resolution for being unconstitutional.
The COMELEC ruling reportedly usurps the power of Congress to legislate.
On another hand, the Comelec fixed the deadline of registration on October 31, 2009 to better prepare for the 2010 elections.
The COMELEC needs to complete voting precincts, constitute the Board of Election Inspectors, finalize computerized voters list, supervise the campaign period and prepare, bid, print and distribute voter’s information sheets. (PIA)