Are poll preparations on track?

It's good to know that the Commission on Elections is ramping up preparations for the 2016 presidential elections.

      

The poll body has reported that it has already delisted more than 1.3 million registered voters this year as part of its efforts to clean the voter’s lists.

      

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista says a total of 1,307,354 voters have been stricken off the lists from January to July 2015.  Of this figure, 879,927 were deactivated for failing to vote in two consecutive elections. The remaining 427,427 were deleted after their deaths were established by local election officers. 

      

The delisting is part of the poll body's preparations for the 2016 elections. 

      

The poll body, we're told, expects around 54 million voters for next year’s presidential elections.

      

At the same time, the Comelec has decided to shelve its plan to extend the campaign period for national candidates from 90 days to 120 days and from 45 to 90 days for local bets as this would require an amendment of the elections laws.  

      

The campaign period for president, vice-president, senators and party-list groups would be from Feb. 9 to May 7 while for local positions, it will be from March 25 to May 7. The filing of certificates of candidacy for all positions is from Oct. 12 to 16. 

      

The poll body's plan to extend the campaign period for national and local positions had been met with skepticism, even derision, as it cannot by itself extend the campaign period without authority from a bill passed by Congress.

      

At  any rate, while we are glad that preparations for the 2016 polls are well underway, we are concerned that time may be running out for full automation of this crucial political exercise.

      

There's just eight months to go before Election Day, but legal challenges hamper the poll body in implementing full automation as required by law. The opponents of full automation should realize that a return to the old system of manual voting and counting will mean bedlam in the polling booths and lead only to dagdag-bawas that will impugn the integrity of our electoral process. –End-

Image by: www.philstar.com