Voter registration ‘too slow’ – Kiko

May 11, 2009

By: Efren Danao

Manila Times
May 11, 2009
 
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said Sunday that the re­gistration of first-time voters has been too slow, fearing that as many as 3.5 million young Filipinos could be disenfranchised in the 2010 elections as a result.   

He cited a statement of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that only 10 percent of the youths qualified to vote in 2010 have registered. The continuing registration of voters ends on October 31, 2009.   

Pangilinan, an independent, noted that in 2007, some 75 percent young Filipinos failed to vote, because they did not know that they were supposed to register.   

“If this number remains unchanged, 3.75 million first-time voters in 2010 will be disenfranchised,” he said.   

He explained that Filipinos aged 35 years old and younger would comprise 54 percent of the voting population, with 5 million of them being first-time voters. “That’s enough to swing the vote, enough to change the electoral landscape, enough to change the face of Philippine governance.”   

Pangilinan said that he, together with youth groups Ayala Young Leaders Alliance, Youth Vote Philippines and First-Time Voters Network, would launch the Register-and-Vote Campaign at 10 a.m. today at the Market! Market! terminal parking lot in Taguig City   
 
 

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