Laoag Comelec resumes voters’ registration

By Dominic B. dela Cruz

Staff reporter

Laoag City—City election officer Atty. Julius Harvey Balbas said the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) office has resumed the continuing registration of voters on November 14, 2016.

Earlier, Comelec Resolution 10166, promulgated on October 25, 2016, called for the resumption of registration to start on November 7, 2016; however due to the impact of supertyphoon “Lawin” [Haima], which resulted in destroyed local Comelec offices’ equipment, the resumption of registration was moved to November 14, 2016.

Laoag, along with San Nicolas, Pagudpud, Banna and Sarrat all suffered equipment issues after the supertyphoon; hence all moved their resumption of registration to November 14, 2016.

Mr. Balbas revealed that their computers were destroyed during the supertyphoon’s rampage in the province.

With the resumption of registration, Mr. Balbas explained that applications for registration, transfer/transfer with reactivation, reactivation, change/correction of entries/and inclusion/reinstatement of records in the list of voters shall be personally filed at the offices of the election officer (OEOs) of the city/district/municipality where the applicant resides, during office hours, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Mondays to Saturdays.

He added that registration will be open to those who will be fifteen (15) years of age on or before the October 23, 2017 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Elections but not more than thirty (30) years old and must be residing in the barangay for at least six months on or before October 23, 2017.

SK voters as of July 2016 registration shall not register anew. Their registration records will be included in the SK database except those who will be 31 years of age on October 23, 2017 Barangay and SK Elections.

For regular voters, Mr. Balbas said those who are or will be 18 years of age on or before October 23, 2017 for purposes of the Barangay Elections, a resident of the Philippines for at least one (1) year and in the place wherein he/she proposes to vote, for at least six months immediately preceding the elections, as follows: on or before October 23, 2017 for purposes of Barangay Elections; and on or before May 13, 2019 for purposes of National and Local Elections.

Relative to this, Mr. Balbas appealed to the public to register on the above mentioned dates to avoid over-crowding on the last days of registration.