The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has called on the public to help cleanse the voters list by reporting to them their dead relatives or friends, who are registered voters.
“We would like to reach out to everyone, if you have deceased relatives or friends, please try to coordinate with local offices of the COMELEC so their names can be removed from the voters’ list,” Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said in a press briefing, Thursday.
“It is one of the reasons why come Election Day, the deceased grandfather, grandmother, or siblings are still there. With this, we can already start cleansing our list,” he added.
Jimenez said those who will report need to bring proof of the death of their relative or friend.
Earlier, the poll body said it will be cleansing the voters’ list used in the May 2019 midterm polls.
Comelec-Elections and Barangay Affairs Department Director Teopista Elnas said they will update their records in order to cleanse the list of voters.
“We want to know how many are for deactivation, as well as those who died, based on the records of the Local Civil Registrars,” he told Radyo Comelec.
Based on the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, among the grounds for deactivation of registration are: being sentenced by final judgment to suffer imprisonment for not less than one year; adjudged by final judgment of committing crime involving disloyalty to the government, such as rebellion, sedition, violation of the anti-subversion, and firearms laws, or any crime against national security; being declared by competent authority to be insane or incompetent.
Those who did not vote in the two successive preceding regular elections; any person whose registration has been ordered excluded by the Court; and any person who has lost his Filipino citizenship will also be deactivated while registration records of those who have died as certified by the Local Civil Registrar shall be cancelled.
There were a total of 61,843,771 registered voters in the last polls. (Leslie Ann Aquino)
