CLOSE to 120,000 registered voters found having double or multiple registrations may face election offense cases, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) detected 118,178 voters with more than one registration.
Why do they have many registrations? For what purpose? Rig the upcoming barangay election?
Double or multiple voter registration is prohibited. It is a violation of the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996. Criminal information may be filed at the Regional Trial Court having jurisdiction over the city or municipality where the offense was committed.
Please do not mock our election processes, especially the upcoming barangay polls.
How important is the barangay election? Why should nobody mess with it?
Barangays are not just the basic units of government; they are also the basic people’s organizations that maintain peace and order and implement community projects in accordance with the needs and wishes of the members of the community.
Perhaps the Comelec can enlist the help of barangay officials to ensure the integrity of elections. As leaders and representatives of the community at the grassroots, barangay officials have the duty and obligation as well as the authority to safeguard the electoral exercise at the barangay level to ensure free, orderly and honest elections so that the will of the community is truly reflected in the election returns.
Barangay officials should consider themselves not just as agents of the national and local governments, but as representatives of the people of their barangays, so that it becomes their duty to see to it that the desires of their constituents as expressed through the ballot box are protected, accurately reported and fully implemented.
Actually, not just barangay officials. All of us citizens have the duty to ensure clean, honest and orderly elections. And it starts with making sure there are no “flying voters” with double or multiple registrations in our respective barangays.
