DAVAO CITY— The Kabataan Partylist stormed the regional office of the Comelec (Commission on Elections) to compel it to immediately start the resumption of voter’s registration as mandated by the Supreme Court. The extension of registration was granted by the Supreme Court acting upon the motion from the Kabataan partylist.
Ronnie Clarion, regional coordinator of Kabataan Partylist said they welcomed the SC’s decision to uphold their petition so that the four million unregistered voters, mostly from the youth, may exercise their basic rights to participate and have an active role in the 2010 presidential elections.
Holding a printed copy of their petition and the Supreme Court order, coordinators, chapter chairpersons and several members of Kabataan Partylist stormed the Comelec
office to ensure that voter’s registration will indeed resume on Dec. 21, 2009.
Kabataan Rep. Mong Palatino and other national youth leaders submitted a petition to the Supreme Court last October 30, 2009 to nullify the deadline of the Comelec for voter’s registration citing the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996 which states that registration must be cut-off 120 days before a regular election.
“The law says that Janaury 9, 2010 must be the deadline for voter’s registration and not December 31, 2009 as set by Comelec,” said Clarion.
Kabataan cited data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) which posted that there are seven million potential voters this election yet only three million of them are registered voters per Comelec data. “Roughly 4 million first-time voters were denied their right to suffrage in the country not only because the Comelec stopped accepting registrants since Oct. 31, 2009, but also because of the slow process and ineffective system of expeditious registration,” Clarion added.
For reference:
Leigh Dalugdog
Kabataan Partylist-SMR
Media Relations Officer
0929-886-9630
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