Youth party-list congratulates new 1st time voters
Kabataan Party-list congratulates new first time voters as extended voter registration ends today.
Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today announced that the voter registration extension was a success in that it is one giant step towards encouraging more youths to participate in the 2010 elections.
“Our main objective in filing our Supreme Court petition was to make every vote count, especially the youth vote and our first time voters who clamor for change in government. In this, we declare the voter registration extension a resounding success,” Palatino said.
Palatino, however, chastised the Comelec for “belittling the turnout” of the extended voter registration.
“Malaking bagay na ang makapagrehistro ang daang libo pa, hindi man milyon as we expected. If we tally 200-300 new registrants a day for at least 1,000 municipalities nationwide, that is a big leap towards youth voters’ participation in the 2010 polls.”
He said that the extension would have been more successful if the Comelec had not been discouraging and confusing in its statements.
“The fact that the Comelec was openly unwelcoming to the SC ruling was a general discouragement to prospective new registrants. They managed to depict something so special as a nuisance, a big bother. Plus, statements that new registrants would be ‘chance passengers’ who would only get to vote if there are extra ballots are not encouraging at all,” said Palatino.
Earlier, Kabataan Party-list complained against the 200-cap per day for new registrants, saying that the voter registration process limited the number of registrants and sent home prospective first time voters frustrated.
Palatino cited the case of new registrants in Iloilo City, for instance. “As of 5:00pm yesterday, 1,211 or an average of 300 registered per day since December 21. Today, as of 11:00am, 500 more have lined up but Comelec had announced that they would only be accepting 150.”
Palatino renewed his appeal to the Comelec to implement the SC ruling to its fullest. “Hundreds of thousands in five days could reach one million if only the Comelec would comply and continue accepting registrants until the designated date on January 9.”
Palatino said that his group would file a manifestation before the Supreme Court to clarify the matter and to ensure that “voter registration would be conducted more efficiently and systematically next time.”
He also urged the youth and new first time voters to look forward to a more active participation in the 2010 polls. “Our task does not end in voter registration. We still have to conduct massive voter education and poll-watch trainings and volunteer-gathering to truly ensure a peaceful and clean 2010 elections.” ###
One of the root causes of the many problems in our country is the fact that nobody seem to complain every time government officials screw the people. Thankfully, Kabataan showed the Filipinos a good example with their petition to “extend” the voters’ registration by going to the SC. Why the quotation? It is because what the Kabataan really did is to CORRECT the deadline of application of registration of voters from 31 October 2009 to the constitutionally correct date of 9 Jan 2010.
However, Melo et al. of COMELEC, do really have their way to be stubborn Instead of implementing the law/SC ruling on the petition, they show a BASTOS attitude by doing the following:
(1) setting the deadline to an earlier 28 Dec 2009
(2) only accepting 1st time voters
(3) putting a cap to the no. of registrants per day
(4) announcing that they will not print extra ballots and proudly reasoning that “voter turnout is expected to be lower anyway”
I urge KABATAAN to clarify the matter with the SC. I personally wont consider the petition “a success” just because it got hundreds of thousands more registered (1st time voters only) voters because it also showed how officials (i.e. of COMELEC) disrespect our laws.
(1) set the deadline to 9 Jan 2010. the reason of COMELEC that list-up does not equate to registration is BS. The petition clearly stated that the date 9 Jan 2010 is “APPLICATION OF REGISTRATION OF VOTERS”. Melo, stop being a “lawyer”, do your job instead w/o too many excuses or else resign.
(2) the petition did not ask for the registration of 1st time voters only. it merely used the argument that many 1st time voters may be disenfranchised due to Comelec Resolution No. 8585. Again pls. stop the lawyer-BS. You cannot screw everybody.
(3) putting a cap per day…isnt that “manana habit” – quoting Melo. stop being a hypocrite.
(4) “turnout will be low anyway”. Wow, a Comelec chair is proud to say such thing. I bet it is again ILLEGAL that you will not match the total no. of printed ballots to the no. of registered voters.
anonymous coward
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24311878/COMELEC-guidelines-on-Re-Opening-of-Voter-s-Registration
Thank you for your support! We will definitely clarify this with the SC and will hope to set things straight.
proud to be kabataan party list member kabataan para sa pagbabago!!
KABATAAN PARTY LIST
will get the 15% of iloilo votes
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