ARMM ready for new voters’ listing

Mujiv Hataman

KORONADAL CITY – Acting Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has expressed confidence that the region’s reputation as the country’s poll cheating capital will be erased as soon as the Commission on Elections conducts a re-registration of voters.

“We are ready for the general registration. We want to address that public perception,” Hataman said Sunday.

“There will be doubts in the result of elections if the voters’ lists are not clean,” he added.

The Senate earlier approved at the committee level a resolution annulling the original voters’ lists and allowing the Commission on Elections to conduct a re-registration.

The Comelec will spend over P174 million to purchase 1,018 voters registration machines that its personnel will used for the re-registration of voters on July 9 to 18.

At the same time, the agency will also procure electric generator sets as fall back when power interruptions happen.

The Comelec has an overall savings of P4.733 billion, which includes the P462 million appropriated and authorized budget originally intended for the canceled ARMM elections last year.

The proposal to nullify the ARMM voters’ lists stemmed from the allegations of “padding” in the number of registered voters. There are 400,000 suspected unqualified or flying voters in the ARMM. Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao