No biometrics, no voting for 7M in 2016

Comelec office. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—More than 7 million registered voters who have not entered their biometrics data into the Commission of Elections voters’ list may not be able to vote in the 2016 elections.

“Millions of registered voters still have no biometrics in the Comelec’s list of voters. Fail to fix that before October 2015 and they can’t vote,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez in his Twitter account (@jabjimenez).

Jimenez said that of the 52 million registered voters, there are 7.3 million who have not yet enrolled their biometrics data with the poll body.

The purpose of filing the biometrics data—consisting of digital fingerprints, photo and signature—is to clean up the computerized voters’ list using unique multiple fingerprint voter data, generation of voters ID and setup of a database that will identify voters using any of their biometrics information in future elections.

Jimenez is particularly calling on voters who registered before the 2004 elections, when capturing biometrics was introduced, to check on the status of their registration.

“Registered as a voter before 2004? If yes, you must validate your registration starting May 6, 2014, or you might not be able to vote in 2016.”—Tina G. Santos