Voters can still register until January 9, 2010

The Supreme Court has extended the voters’ registration for the 2010 elections to January 9 after it nullified a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution that limited the said registration to October 31, 2009, a radio report said on Tuesday.

In its nine-page ruling issued on Tuesday, the high tribunal moved the registration’s deadline as a reply to the petition of Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino to extend voters’ registration.

The congressman questioned the shortened period for registration, saying that according to Section 8 of the Voter Registration Act of 1996, "registration should be daily and 120 days before election."

“We welcome this decision of the Supreme Court. We hope that more of the youth will go out and register for the coming elections," Palatino told GMANews.TV in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.

Palatino said he was expecting the poll body to come up with guidelines on the resumption of voters’ registration as soon as possible.



Difficult situation

Comelec chairman Jose Melo said the decision had placed the poll body in a difficult situation. “Medyo mahihirapan na tayong ihabol ang listahan (It’s going to be hard for us to come out with the voter’s list on time)," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said that aside from the tedious process of approving voters, the consolidation of the master list and its distribution to the precincts would take a lot of time.

Melo said there would be problem on the voters' part if the list does not reach a specific precinct in time for the May 10 elections. A voter’s list indicates whether a voter can vote in a specific precinct.

“Paano boboto ang mga tao kung walang voter's list (How can people vote if there is no voter’s list)?" he said.

Year-long registration

The poll body has repeatedly said in the past that there was no need for an extension of registration because they were given ample time to register. Registration ran for almost a year, from December 2008 to October 31, 2009.

It added that it’s not them but the Filipino “national behavior" of waiting for the last minute to do something is to blame for the “disenfranchisement" of some voters.

But Melo said that since what the SC says is law, they cannot do anything but follow it. “We’ll see how we can do it," he said, adding that they are yet to receive a copy of the ruling.

Earlier, the Comelec said that as of the December 10, the number of registered voters had reached 49,271,492.

In the 2007 elections, there were 45,029,443 registered voters.