BY MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City – Persons with disabilities (PWDs) here have the whole day today to have themselves registered as voters.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold the registration at the North Wing of SM City Bacolod.
“The registration is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” said Mavil Majarucon, city Comelec registrar.
Today’s activity is in line with the National Registration Day for PWDs.
“I encourage local government units to provide transportation to PWDs” so they can reach the registration venues without hassle, Majarucon said.
PWDs already registered are also urged to update their biometrics data which consist of digital fingerprints, photo and signature.
The biometrics registration aims to clean Comelec’s voters’ list.
The Mandatory Biometrics Voter Registration Act of 2013 provides that registration records of voters without biometrics data and those who fail to submit for validation on or before the last day of the filing of application for registration for the May 9, 2016 elections, will be deactivated from the list of voters.
Registration of voters started on May 6, 2014 and will end on October 31, 2015.
Today, aside from biometrics registration, PWDs will also be asked to fill out supplementary forms indicating their type of disability and what kind of assistance they would need during the May 2016 presidential polls.
In 2016, PWDs and senior citizens will be given a choice of which polling places are more accessible for them to cast their votes.
Comelec projects over 55 million voters nationwide in 2016, or an increase of about three million new voters from the 2013 number of registered voters./PN
