ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disapproved the application of 2,000 people to register as voters in the 2019 mid-term polls after they were found to be multiple registrants.
Lawyer Stephen Roy Cañete, first district election officer, said Friday the multiple registrants were discovered through the Comelec’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
AFIS is a biometric identification methodology that uses digital imaging technology to obtain, store, and analyze fingerprint data.
Cañete said AFIS aims to ensure that a registered voter will only vote once. He added that the disqualified voters were found to be registered in nearby areas in the region.
He said the AFIS result came after the registration of new voters from July 2 to September 29.
Meanwhile, Cañete said the number of registered voters in this city’s two districts has increased by 31,281 to 467,535 from the previous 436,254.
He said the number of registered voters in the first district has increased by 14,248 from 226,064 to 240,312, while the number of voters in the second district rose by 17,033 to 227,223 from the previous 210,190.
This city has 98 barangays — 37 in the first district and 61 in the second.
