Long after the complaints have ended and their collective frustration vented in public, those who failed to register or have their complete biometrics data taken at the Commission on Elections (Comelec)—and they may number in the hundreds or thousands—may want to take stock of what just happened and decide right there and then if they care to repeat their failure in the next elections.
They simply cannot blame the Comelec, which had established off-site registrations and managed to convince various malls in Cebu to provide space for deadline beaters to register as the clock ticked down to the last second of last Sunday’s deadline.
Being a longtime voter didn’t guarantee one a chance to vote as the Comelec had long reminded the public that they require voters to have their biometrics taken in order to be included in the master list of voters of every precinct in Cebu and the rest of the country.
Biometrics are important if only to cleanse the master list of voters that had long been the subject of manipulation and drawn out legal battles between the Comelec and losing candidates, who may or may not have been cheated by their rivals.
Election operators, who’ve long been laboring in the shadows, have used that master list of voters to resurrect long dead voters in order to pad the numbers for their clients.
Unfortunately not a few long time voters failed to appreciate the Comelec’s call until the last few days of registration.
By this time, or yesterday, the Comelec can determine how many have failed to register and thus forfeited their right to choose the next batch of government officials in 2016.
While the Comelec may wish to consider setting up working arrangements for off-site registrations with malls or other areas at a far earlier date for the next elections in order to cut down on the number of late registrants, it may also want to consider other methods that can provide ease of access and convenience to the public.
In the US, which is often used as the barometer by the Philippines in how national elections are conducted due to their speed, accessibility and transparency in coming out with the election results, American voters can transmit their votes by snail mail in time for the elections.
Such a practice may be unthinkable in this country where election results are grilled and seared like meat by contending parties and then elevated to the Supreme Court if they deem it even slightly questionable.
It is this reality that faces Filipinos who are either used to or are jaded by the culture of corruption that pervades election politics. It is this reality that the Comelec is trying to change by setting the system right through biometrics which will separate the legitimate voters from the flying voters.
And Filipinos who failed to register will have to wait until 2019 to renew their right to vote.
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