By Alfonso T. Ruda
DIPOLOG CITY - More than 134 thousand registered voters in Zamboanga del Norte have no biometrics data, according to the provincial Comelec office.
This was disclosed by Atty. Ephraim Bag-id, Comelec-9 assistant regional director and concurrent provincial election supervisor of Zamboanga del Norte during the recent “Kapihan sa Dipolog” radio progrtam held at Sunburst Restaurant, Hotel Camila I this city.
Bag-id said, as of August 12, 2013, 134,471 registered voters of the total 627,001 registered voters in the province have no biometrics data.
Based on Comelec’s report, 9.6 million registered voters throughout the country have no biometrics data and may not be able to vote in the next election.
Under Republic Act 10367, otherwise known as the Mandatory Biometrics Act of 2013, any registered voter who fails to get biometrics data will be de-activated from the list of voters and losses his right to vote this coming May 9, 2016 national and local election.
Bag-id likewise appealed to the new registrants to register early and not to wait for the last minute to avoid inconvenience.
However, during the first day of the voters’ registration, low turnout of voters was noted in the whole province of Zamboanga del Norte.
According to the provincial Comelec office, this was due to power interruption in the whole service area of Zamboanga del Norte Electric Cooperative which lasted for five hours. It started as early as 9 a.m. in some municipalities, and 11:20 a.m. in Dipolog City.
To facilitate the registration process, Bag-id suggested to the new registrants to download the application froms through its official website www.comelec.gov.ph, accomplish it and bring it to the local Comelec office for processing.
The registration of voters started May 6, 2014 and will last until October 31, 2015.
