Registering voters crowd Comelec to beat deadline

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  — People have crowded the Comelec offices in different cities and towns in Negros Occidental for biometrics voter registration, as they beat the October 31 deadline.

Provincial election supervisor Jessie Suarez, after inspecting the Comelec offices around the province, said it is the culture of Filipinos to wait for the last minute before registering. “Where were they a year and five months ago?” he asked.

Most of the voters who have yet to register comes from the urban areas and not from the hinterlands, Suarez said, adding that he noted a “hakot system” perpetrated by still unidentified politicians.

Negros Occidental topped the biometrics data registration in the country. Out of the province’s 1,595,317 registered voters, 57,653 of them have yet to update their biometrics data, otherwise they could not vote in 2016.  (FREEMAN)