Majority of those who registered with the 17 municipal offices of the Comelec, Aklan in time for the May 2007 elections were young people. They lined in various Comelec offices for registration of voters until December 31, 2006.
These young Aklanons, mostly students just turned 18 or would be turning 18 on or before the May 2007 elections, said COMELEC-Aklan OIC Provincial Election Supervisor Lorena Tumbagahan, They will be voting for the first time in their lives in the national and local elections.
As they had anticipated despite the continuing voters’ registration and their sustained advocacy to register early, most people waited for the last day to register, crowding the COMELEC provincial and municipal offices in Aklan, Tumbagahan said.
"COMELEC-Aklan is now in the process of scrutinizing these voter’s applications. We have received more than 29,000 applications throughout the province from October to December 2006, but this is not the final figure as some of the applicants are transferees from other towns of the province who might have moved to other areas in Aklan," Tumbagahan pointed out.
"We expect to come out with a definite number of voters after January 12, the end of deliberations by the
Election Registration Board (ERB)," she added. As of August 2006, Aklan has a total of 244,429 registered voters.
The ERB is composed of the Election Officer, the Local Civil Registrar of a municipality and representative from the Department of Education.
As the election period starts on January 14, Tumbagahan said COMELEC-Aklan has already held a command conference with the Philippine National Police Aklan to talk about memorandum circulars and resolutions for the conduct of the May 2007 elections and the role of the PNP in the conduct of the coming political exercise.
January 15 is set as the start of the filing of Certificates of Candidacies (COCs) of those intending to run in the May polls. The last day of filing of COCs for the senatorial candidates is on February 15 while the deadline for the local candidates like Congressman, Governor, Mayor, Vice Mayor and SP/SB members is set on March 29. /MPmailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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