BACOLOD City – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) here has deactivated 42,000 voters for failure to vote in two consecutive elections.
City Election officer Atty. Mavil Sia said these voters failed to participate in the past May 2018 Sangguniang Kabataan and May 2019 midterm polls.
“This is part of our nationwide cleansing process following the conduct of Election Registration Board on Aug. 13,” said Sia.
Section 27 of the Republic Act 8189, or the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, which provides for the grounds for deactivation of voters’ registration, says that the Election Registration Board “shall deactivate the registration and remove the registration records” of any person “who did not vote in the two successive preceding regular elections as shown by their voting records.”
According to Sia, the deactivated voters can still apply for reactivation at the Comelec offices where they were registered.
She underscored that deactivated voters will simply be placed on “inactive” status but will not be deleted in the Comelec’s database.
“We have an ongoing registration that started on Aug. 1 and will run until Sept. 30. So far, we have catered around 2,800 applicants and we are expecting an increase,” she said.
The Comelec officer also said that they will accept applications for new registration as well as transfer, reactivation, reinstatement, and correction of entry starting October.
Sia added the city Comelec is conducting satellite registrations in barangays Estefania on Aug. 24; Mansilingan on Aug. 31; Handumanan on Sept. 7; Vista Alegre on Sept. 14; and Taculing on Sept. 21./PN
