Comelec seeks to purge dead voters

MANILA, Philippines — To effectively cleanse the voters’ lists, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday called on the public to report their dead relatives or friends who are registered voters.

According to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, they want to remove dead voters from the list but the poll body must be properly notified about the deaths. 

“I would like to reach out to everyone. If you have a relative or friend who already passed away, please coordinate with the offices of the Comelec so they could be removed from our listing,” he said.

But Jimenez noted that reporting should come with a death certificate before the process of delisting could start.

He said removing the dead is part of their efforts to cleanse the voters’ lists. The other is to identify and delist those who have double or multiple registration through a cross-matching system. 

Earlier, the Comelec had announced that it would coordinate with the Philippine Statistics Authority concerning the latter’s data on dead voters.

Under the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, registration records of those who have died, as certified by the local civil registrar, shall be cancelled.

This will be done if the local civil registrar will submit each month a certified list of persons who passed away during the previous month, to the election officer of the place where the deceased are registered.

Last Aug. 1, the Comelec had resume the voter registration and this will last until Sept. 30.