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Mad scramble on last days of registration

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By Maria Althea Teves, abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak | 11/02/2009 4:04 PM

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It was probably unavoidable. As the period for voter registration set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) drew to a close, complaints regarding the process began to inundate ABS-CBN’s Boto Mo iPatrol Mo campaign desk.

People complained about the long lines and the confusion at the registration centers. There were not enough registration forms, some complained. In the provinces, there were complaints over Commission officials purportedly giving certain registrants preferential treatment over the others.

Calls were made to ask the Comelec to extend the period of registration to accommodate the throng still waiting to be registered. And when the Commission refused, a youth group decided to take the issue to the High Court.

Deluge of registrants

People from Olongapo City, Zambales wait long lines outside their city hall last October 31. The picture was taken by Boto Patroller Zosthy Alicdan.

The Comelec insists that it has done enough to give first time registrants, or those wanting to transfer their registration, the opportunity to register for the upcoming elections.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak in an earlier interview that the Commission has set up some 1,650 registration centers nationwide for this purpose. Each center is equipped with a data capturing machine (DCM) that can accommodate about 200 registrants at any given day. (Read: New voters wait long lines to beat registration deadline)

The Commission targeted to register 47 million this year. As of July 20, some 45.4 million voters were already registered. To hit its target, the Comelec only needed to register 1.6 million more from July 20 to October 31. 

This should not have been a difficult thing to accomplish, theoretically. Assuming all the machines were working, and there were people lining up to register, the Comelec should have been able to accommodate as much as 330,000 registrants per day. 

This meant the Commission only needed 5 full working days to meet its 1.6 million target.

Late registrants

Sarmiento is confident the Comelec met the target. “I have not seen the latest numbers, we have not yet deliberated so we have yet to find out if we have exceeded our target,” he said.

He admitted to abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak, however, that the Commission was unable to accommodate the huge number of registrants towards the later part of the registration period.

“Hindi nakayanan, nagdagsaan last minute (We’re not able to accommodate everyone, there were so many people registering at the last minute),” he said.

Boto Patroller Wilmer Estrado, 22, was among those who were not able to register because the registration center in his municipality of Imus, Cavite were no longer accepting registrants as early as 7:00 am because of the back log of unprocessed registration forms from past days.

“I was not able to register. Some people were there as early as 3:00 am, they were not served until 8:00 am,” he said he tried to register last October 29 when the Comelec was not supposed to be refusing accepting registrants until 9:00 pm.

He said that there were a little over a hundred people in line that day that were not accommodated by the Comelec office.

“I feel bad, I want to vote,” Estrabo said. “I want to change how our city is being run. There are so many useless projects here and if I don’t vote, I would not be able to have a real say on things,” he said.

Congested areas

Boto Patroller Jalal Dita took this picture of people waiting to register at the Marawi City Hall, Lanao del Norte last October 31.

The Pinoy penchant for waiting at the last minute, however, is not the only factor that contributed to the ruckus that attended the remaining days of voter registration.

More could have registered and the Comelec could have gone beyond its target, if only there were more people and better facilities to accommodate registrants.

It looks as though the Commission particularly failed to set up proper systems to accommodate the huge volume of people registering in highly urbanized cities, particularly Metro Manila.

For instance, as early as July, ABS-CBN’s Multiply site, botomoipatrolmo.multiply.com, was already getting complaints from people wanting to register in Quezon City but were unable to.

One such complaint was from “Jau” who described himself as a first time voter from Quezon City.

Jau said he was one of those who lined up to register at Barangay North Fairview sometime in May. He said there was confusion because there were so many people registering. “It was so confusing. There was no system in place. You did not know who to talk to or what you were supposed to do.” What made the situation worse, he said, was the fact that those wanting to register were mingling with those who were merely applying for a barangay clearance.

Jau said at around 9am that day, the Comelec already ran out of forms. “We were just told that they will have our IDs photocopied together with our personal details, such as name, birthday, address and phone number. They told us they will just call.”

Jau posted the complaint on July 3, several months after he tried to register, after failing to get any word from the Comelec office in Quezon City on the status of his application.
Capturing voter biometrics is an essential part of the registration process. The Commission uses this information to weed out double registrants and flying voters. 

DCM deployment

The Comelec, as a rule, deployed one DCM per city or municipality. In areas with a relatively low voting population, like Zambales, they are able to maximize the lone DCM in their municipalities.

Sarmiento, however, said that in highly-populated areas like Quezon City, Manila, Cebu and Davao, every district office in the municipality has their own DCM. 

As of February 2009, a select list of 24 districts were given more than one DCM each, according to information posted on the Comelec website.

Sarmiento said these were done to hopefully accommodate all those who are willing to register in highly populated areas where long lines are expected even before last-minute registration.

By some accounts, however, this may not have been enough. Last August, for instance, the Comelec supervised over a mobile registration for Barangay Batasan Hills and Bagong Silangan at the Filinvest Homes subdivision. Barangay Bagong Silangan has 73,612 residents.
 
In the morning, within hours after the registration started, more than 400 people were already lining up. Not all were able to finish with their biometrics capturing and were asked to go to the Quezon City for their scheduled biometrics.

Quezon City’s population as of 2007 was at 2.6 million, according to the National Statistics Office. In Barangay Batasan Hills alone, there are 148,624 residents and Barangay Holy Spirit has 106,038 residents—both are in District 2 of Quezon City.

Many of the complaints received by BMPM came from residents of highly urbanized areas.

School and two storms

Timing also came into play.

The two storms that visited Metro Manila, its surrounding areas and Northern Luzon disrupted voter registration in affected areas towards the later part of the registration period.

The fact that most new registrants are students also meant long lines during weekends—a factor that could have discouraged some from lining up until the very last minute.

Boto Patroller Ansel Benitez, a 19-year old University of Santo Tomas student, reported that he was with a lot of students when he tried to register on Thursday, October 29.

Benitez was lucky enough to have successfully registered. But because he was one of the hundreds registering last minute, he waited 24 hours to finish the whole process in Bacoor, Cavite. The students, he said, should not be faulted for registering at the last minute. “It is their only free time to go back to the province,” said.

Benitez lined up 6:00 am last Thursday and finished 6:00 am the next day.

Tidal wave of enthusiasm

Ironically, renewed voter enthusiasm also contributed to a turn out that was more than the Comelec could handle.

The series of fora on poll automation, media coverage of election related activities and new candidates running are among the “tiny ripples that contributed to the tidal wave of people’s enthusiasm,” Sarmiento said with a happy voice.  The academe and civil society’s effort to educate would-be voters is also a reason why there have been many citizens lining up to register.

There is simply an overwhelming desire on the part of the citizenry to register and vote in the upcoming elections, Sarmiento said.

The Comelec tried to do its part. From October 22 to 31, towards the later part of the registration period, the Comelec deployed an 62 additional DCMs to Metro Manila. Of this number, 7 went to Quezon City according to a Comelec press release dated October 21.

The Commission also fielded additional manpower, and extended additional registration hours.

But in the end, it was all not enough to accommodate those trying to register. – abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak with reports from Boto Mo iPatrol Mo