THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday expressed confidence that it would be able to weed out multiple registrants in time for the August polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“The list of voters is a dynamic thing,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said in an interview, adding that the poll body is doing its best to prevent multiple registrants from spoiling the results of the ARMM elections. 

He added that aside from double and multiple registrants, death, transfer of residence and marriage are also factors that affect the voters’ list.

“The cleansing of the list is ongoing but is not limited to ARMM,” Jimenez said.

In the 2007 senatorial elections, the poll body was able to identify at least 100,000 double and multiple registrants in the ARMM, the region where vote-rigging often takes place.

Jimenez also expressed confidence in the Comelec’s registry system, saying it has a “process by which we can administratively remove multiple registrations.”      

The Comelec has adopted biometrics, a technology that measures and analyzes human body characteristics for authentication purposes.

There are an estimated 1.6 million registered voters in the ARMM, composed of the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Shariff Kabunsuan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Basilan.

The country will experience its first taste of poll automation in the ARMM polls as the Comelec will use two types of technology to computerize the exercise.

The poll modernization in the region will serve as a pilot test for the automation of the 2010 presidential elections. In the late 1990s, the Comelec tried to computerize the ARMM elections only to cancel the project after all the machines it purchased bogged down before election day.

In 2004 the Supreme Court nullified the poll body’s contract with a computer company because of bidding irregularities. As a result, close to 2,000 machines are currently stored in a Comelec warehouse where the government pays P3 million each year to keep them.

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THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday expressed confidence that it would be able to weed out multiple registrants in time for the August polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).