VOTER REGISTRATION. An elderly woman is assisted in placing her thumb on a scanning device for her biometrics to register for this year's Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections inside a mall in Binondo, Manila on Jan. 26, 2023. The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls will be held in October this year. (PNA photo by Yancy Lim)
MANILA – Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday said adopting an online registration of voters would create an efficient, convenient and cost-effective mechanism that would strengthen the voter registration process as a whole.
Romualdez made the statement as House Bill (HB) No. 7241, which seeks to amend the "Voter's Registration Act of 1996", was approved on the third and final reading with 307 affirmative votes, one negative vote and no abstention.
Romualdez said the proposal aims to "encourage a system of registration that ensures and guarantees a clean, complete, permanent, and updated list of voters."
In order to ensure a continuing system of voter registration, he said the state shall adopt and make use of technologies that shall facilitate and allow the automated and online registration of voters as an option, taking into account the integrity, completeness and accuracy of the list of voters.
To register as a voter, the bill provides that the applicant shall personally or electronically accomplish an application form for registration as prescribed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and personally submit the accomplished form to the office of the election officer of the city or municipality where the voter resides on any date during office hours, or through the official website of the Comelec.
"The application for registration may be submitted personally or electronically and shall be processed in accordance with Republic Act No.10367, titled ‘An Act providing for mandatory biometrics voter registration’ at the expense of the Commission," the bill stated.
It further said that before the applicant accomplishes the application for registration, the Election Officer shall inform the applicant of the qualifications and disqualifications prescribed by law for a voter, and thereafter, see to it that the accomplished application contains all the data therein required and that the applicant’s specimen signatures, fingerprints and photographs are properly affixed in the voter’s application.
"In case of online submission or application for registration by an applicant, the Commission shall send a notice confirming its receipt of the application and provide instructions on how the applicant may check the status of the application," the bill said.
For voters who will change their residence to another barangay, they may apply with the Election Officer of the city or municipality in which the voter's new residence is located for the transfer of the voter’s registration records.
No transfer of a voter's registration to another barangay shall be allowed within 120 days before a regular election and 90 days before a special election. (PNA)
