Islamic City of Marawi (11 August) -- The Commission on Elections in Lanao del Sur is expecting a minimal turnout in the number of applicants for the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and Barangay elections registrations.
"We would not expect much because almost everybody is already registered, in fact, our registration here is excessive due to multiple registrants," stressed Atty. Nasib Yasin, Provincial Election Supervisor.
On the other hand, City Election Officer, Atty. Tommy Macadindang, disclosed that there is a low increase in the number of registrants in the city because some of its registrants were captured as double or multiple registrants.
He said some of the more than 8,600 double and multiple registrants in Lanao del Sur came from this city.
Moreover, he said he also conducted an Election Registration Board (ERB) hearing last July 12 regarding those who failed to vote twice and those certified by the local Civil Registrar as dead.
"We have almost 300 voters who failed to vote twice and we deleted such persons from the list," he added.
Meanwhile, both Provincial Election Supervisor and City Election Officer said their office is still accepting applicants and will be opened from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
"We started the registration on August 4 and until now we are still in the process of collecting application from the registrants," they said.
According to them, any Filipino citizen may register as a voter for the Barangay elections provided he / she must be 18 years old on October 25 and has resided in the Philippines for one (1) year and in the place where he / she intends to vote for at least six (6) months immediately preceding the elections.
For the SK elections, the applicant must be at least 15 years old but below 18 years old on October 25 and a resident for at least six (6) months in the barangay where he / she proposes to vote, they added.
Yasin also said applicants can bring any document that could identify themselves such as employee's ID, students ID, driver's license, passport, certificate of live birth and school records.
However, Yasin clarified that the COMELEC will not accept community tax certificate and certification from the barangay official as identification.
In the absence of any identification documents, any person may, under oath, identify the applicant, but that person shall not be allowed to identify more than three (3) applicants unless they are immediate members of his family, he added.
Yasin further said the period to register for the SK polls will run until August 15 while the registration for the barangay polls will end on August 13.
