TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte—The Commission on Elections in Eastern Visayas reported that close to 197,000 voters in the region were delisted as Comelec continued to cleanse its records in preparation for the 2010 elections.

Most of the 196,673 voters who were delisted failed to vote in two consecutive elections while others died or moved elsewhere, said Comelec Eastern Visayas regional legal officer Richard Japzon.

He said 182,543 were purged from the list due to their failure to cast their votes during the general elections in May 2007 and in the barangay (village) elections in October of the same year. A total of 9,193 names were delisted because they were already dead.

The figures were based on the January 19, 2009 consolidated continuing registration report of Comelec Eastern Visayas.

Other reasons

Transfer to other city or municipality, double registration, and loss of citizenships were the other reasons voters were removed from the list, Japzon explained.

Those who were removed from the voters’ list due to their failure to vote in two consecutive elections have until October 31 this year to register again so they could vote in next year’s presidential elections, he said.

Comelec Eastern Visayas records also revealed that since the Comelec started accepting registration of voters on December 2, 2008, only 5,406 have registered throughout the region.

Of the six provinces of the region, Leyte has the biggest number of delisted voters at 85,851 with 80,882 purged due to their failure to vote in two successive elections while 1,029 were removed due to deaths.

Leyte, the biggest province in the region, has 891,156 registered and qualified voters based on the latest listing of the poll body.

Tallies

In Samar, 32,722 were delisted due to their failure to vote and 1,029 were listed as dead. The province has 199,279 registered voters.

In Southern Leyte, 28,782 were purged from the list, 26,236 of whom due to their failure to vote while 1,679 due to death. The total number of registered voters in the province now stands at 208,634.

In Northern Samar, 21,231 were purged from the list for failure to cast votes in two successive elections and 1,238 due to death. The province has 249,611 voters.

In Eastern Samar, 10,655 were stricken off the list for failure to vote and 501 due to death.

In Biliran, the smallest province of Eastern Visayas, the number of delisted voters totaled 12,567; 10,817 of them were due to their failure to vote in two successive elections.

As of January 19 this year, Eastern Visayas has 1.8 million registered voters.