CLARK FREEPORT – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is slated to pilot-test in Nueva Ecija a new voter registration system that would readily establish the identity of each voter via his or her fingerprint.
Under the biometric system, the identity of a registered voter in a given precinct would appear by just pressing his thumb on the machine so this would discourage flying voters, said Comelec assistant regional director Elmo Duque in a forum with the Pampanga Press Club here on Tuesday.
He said, however, that there could be instances wherein the thumbprint of a voter could have already been altered, such as in the case of laborers or farmers whose thumbs might have been have affected by hard work. “In such cases, the voter’s identity could still be established in the usual documentary process,” he added.
This, even as Duque warned local candidates of the Comelec’s seriousness to prosecute those who fail to remove their campaign materials within 72 hours before March 29, the official first day of campaigning for them.
Duque warned that the Comelec will hold candidates and parties accountable for illegal campaign materials even if they claim that these were put up by others or without their knowledge.
“They will be prosecuted,” he sternly warned.
In various parts of Central Luzon, many of the campaign materials exceed the Comelec provision limiting campaign materials to 2×3 feet or 3×2 feet.
The campaign materials are also situated in places that are outside the common poster areas as determined by the Comelec’s election officers in each locality.
This, even as Duque also said Comelec has been training some 17,000 teachers to comprise election boards. He said the chair of each board would receive P6,000 and each member P5,000 as honoraria for their election work. Department of Education election supervisors are to be paid P4000 honorarium each and each of their staff gets P2,000 on top of P1,000 travelling allowance.
Duque said Smartmatic machines for the automated polls are ready for distribution, but declined to say where they are stored for security reasons. He said some parts of the machines, such as USB’s are contracted to other companies.
He also reported that Central Luzon now has 6,829, 605 registered voters, 8,654 clustered precincts, 2,834 voting centers and 25,965 election board members.
Duque also said he expected a higher turnout of voters in May, amid such trend in the last two elections. He noted a 74 percent turnout in Central Luzon in the 2013 polls and 82 percent in 2016.
He also explained that the Comelec has adopted color-coding for classifying peace and order in elections areas, namely green, yellow, orange and red, depending on possible threats that range from terrorism to intense political rivalries. Those in the red situation would be put under Comelec control, he said.
Duque said, however, that no area in Central Luzon has been classified as red.
He also said this time, machines would also determine the identities of voters via thumbprint. Those with smudged thumbprint could still vote on the basis of existing documents.
