Comelec on tight schedule for youth, village polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is following a very tight schedule leading to the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections and it may not be able to achieve its goals if the registration of voters is extended.

The Comelec issued this statement after youth groups on Thursday filed a petition in the high court asking for a 14-day extension of the voters’ registration for the Sangguniang Kabataan polls.

The Comelec earlier allowed a 16-day registration period—from July 15 to 30—but the petitioners claimed that the law allows for a longer 30-day registration period.

“The problem is, we are short on time, the elections are on Oct. 31. We still have to finalize the project of precincts and the ballots will be printed starting Aug. 21,” said Comelec chairperson Andres Bautista.

“We are ready to show our schedule, our timeline so the Supreme Court will understand,” he said.

The petitioners are Akbayan Youth, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, SK Reform Coalition, First Time Voters Network, Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking and Bigkis-UPM.

Records showed that 1,615,830 voters aged 15 to 17 registered during the 16-day period, bringing the total number of registrants to 3,095,187. Julie M. Aurelio