MANILA, Philippines—It’s final: the registration of voters for the May elections is over.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Jose Melo Tuesday said last Saturday’s deadline for registration would not be extended, even as he admitted that the slow processing by data-capturing machines contributed to the backlog in the last-minute surge of registrants.

In a media interview, Melo said those who were given application forms on Saturday for processing Tuesday only had until midnight to submit them to their local Comelec offices.

The extra day for processing was prompted by power outages on Saturday when Typhoon “Santi” (international name: Mirinae) swept Luzon.

Melo said voters had plenty of time to register, pointing out that the exercise started on Dec. 2, 2008.

“There were quite a number of days when there were virtually no registrants. Then in the last 3-5 days, the people flooded the local offices to beat the deadline,” he said.

Melo noted that the biometric registration slowed down the queues, especially in the last week of the registration.

“The process was a little prolonged. Unlike in the past, now your fingerprints have to be taken, your signature, picture. It’s longer,” Melo said.

Filing of candidacies extended

To avoid the confusion that accompanied the final days of registration, the Comelec has decided to extend the period for the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) to Dec. 1 instead of the original deadline of Nov. 30.

Melo said the Comelec would work on weekends and holidays during the filing period.

“From Nov. 20, we will be open for the filing of COCs regardless of whether it’s a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday,” he said.

“On Dec. 1, the filing will be up to midnight,” he added.

The Comelec declined to give the latest number of registrants, saying field officials were still collating data. The last official data on registrants issued in July showed that there were about 3 million new registrants.

An estimated 45 million voters are expected to vote next year.

Election Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said that more new voters applied for registration this year than in the past.

Ballot box design finalized

The Comelec also said that it had finalized the design of the ballot box to be used in the elections following intense discussions.

The Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) and the Project Management Office (PMO) Tuesday agreed to follow the council’s suggestion that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines reject spurious or fake ballots.

The PMO earlier approved the proposal to have the machines accept the fake ballots and drop them in a separate compartment.

“Aside from incurring expenses that are outside the budget already, what would stop some people who might take advantage (of these fake ballots) once the storage boxes are opened from mixing the genuine ballots from the rejected ones? We do not agree to that,” said CAC member Ramon Casiple.

Under the finalized scheme, ballots spit out by the PCOS machines will be confiscated by the board of election inspectors, he added.

No consultation

Casiple lamented that the CAC was not consulted by the PMO during the initial discussion on the ballot boxes, noting that the PMO had not shared some information with the council.

To remedy this, he said that the Comelec had appointed Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal to coordinate with the two parties.