Participation of CSOs in Verification of List of Voters (PH0071)

Brief Description of the Commitment

The commitment aims to emphasize the importance of institutionalizing the role of accredited citizens’ arms in ensuring that the voters list to be used in all electoral exercises are complete, accurate and updated, through its verification and certification during the Election Registration Board (ERB) Meeting set for the purpose. The commitment is in line with the policy of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to establish a clean, complete, permanent and updated list of voters. Inaccuracies in the voters list lead to electoral integrity issues and affects the public trust in electoral systems and processes. One of the crucial ways to address these inaccuracies is to ensure participation of citizens' groups in the verification and certification of voters lists. However, at present, such verification and certification by citizens’ groups does not take place consistently. This is due to various factors:  This process is not yet fully institutionalized by COMELEC  Few CSOs are currently accredited by COMELEC to carry out these processes  The process does not have 100% coverage (especially in areas where the accredited CSOs have no local chapters or affiliates) There is thus a need to fully institutionalize the participation of CSOs in the verification and certification of voters list, in order to show that COMELEC is truly committed in upholding the Commission’s policy on transparency and participative democratic process.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address?  Eliminate the perennial problem of incomplete, inaccurate and outdated voters list; thus, upholding the integrity and sanctity of the electoral processes;  Quash the doubts of the public resulting to higher voter trust rating, since the list of voters generated in all elections are accurate and complete through the joint verification of representatives of COMELEC, DepEd, Local Civil Registrar, LGUs, and the accredited citizens’ arms existing in the locality; and  Issue on transparency is dealt with, due to the total and active participation of accredited citizens’ arms in the conduct of verification, certification, and sealing of the voters’ list.

2. What are the causes of the problem?  Inaccurate lists of voters is caused by the failure of some Offices of the Election Officer (OEOs) to properly cleanse their respective lists by deleting/deactivating voters registration records based on Republic Act (R.A.) No. 8189, otherwise known as the “Voter Registration Act of 1996” and pertinent rules on the system of continuing registration of voters;  Failure of other government agencies such as the offices of the Local Civil Registrars and Courts of Justice to timely and completely provide the Commission with the lists of deceased persons of voting age and individuals sentenced by final judgment to suffer imprisonment of not less than one (1) year but not more than six (6) years, respectively;  Failure of some OEOs to send a Notice of Approval of transfer of registration records to OEOs of origin, thus, resulting to multiple/double registration without the voters’ fault; and  Erroneous encoding of demographic details in the Voter Registration System (VRS).

Commitment description 1

. What has been done so far to solve the problem?  Resolutions have been promulgated establishing the procedure in the verification and certification of the list of voters;  Manual inclusion and cross-out of names of voters from the list are performed during the conduct of the ERB Meeting for the verification and certification of the above list;  Several memoranda have been issued constantly reminding OEOs of their duty to properly cleanse the list of voters through the deactivation/deletion of registration records;  OEOs are reminded to fully coordinate with their counterpart Local Civil Registrar to obtain the complete monthly list of deceased persons of voting age;  Accredited citizens’ arms are provided with soft copies of voters list, to allow them to cascade the same to their local chapters for verification purposes; and  Representation with the Supreme Court, through the Court Administrator, for the early resolution of inclusion and exclusion cases, and submission of the list of persons with final conviction by concerned courts to the OEOs.

2. What solutions are you proposing?  OEOs should strictly perform the cleansing process (deletion/deactivation/manual inclusion or cross-out of voters’ names);  OEOs should establish proper communication channels with concerned government agencies relative to the cleansing of voters list;  Accredited citizens’ arms should have local chapters, affiliates or accredited election stakeholders in all cities/municipalities/districts across the country to ensure maximum participation in the conduct of verification and certification of voters list;  Encourage other civic groups and organizations, non-governmental organizations, and political parties to vigilantly observe the above activity;  Institutionalize the practice of concerned government agencies in regularly providing the Commission, through the OEOs, with the complete and accurate list of deceased voters and those sentenced by final judgment as mentioned above;  Measures need to be taken towards institutionalizing the process through a Resolution from the Commission En Banc;  The process of accreditation need to be reviewed and simplified with the participation of CSOs. This will also clarify the details of which CSOs/citizens’ groups are eligible to participate in the process;  A baseline as to how many verification and certification processes have been conducted with the participation of citizens groups, will be established in the next succeeding elections [May 2025 National and Local Elections], with the target of expanding the baseline [in the succeeding December 2025 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections and 2028 National and Local Elections];  The results may be measured/quantified through reductions in irregularities in the voters list; and  Outreach, awareness raising and capacity building activities need to be conducted for the citizen groups.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment?  Very high public trust rating due to accurate, complete, and updated voters list as a result of the joint effort of the Commission and the concerned stakeholders;  Active participation of local chapters of accredited citizens’ arms in the verification and certification of voters list of all cities/municipalities nationwide; and  Encourage civic organizations, political parties, and the public to vigilantly observe the conduct of the above verification and certification.

Additional Information

 This is in line with the policy of R.A. No. 8189 to establish a clean, complete, permanent and updated list of voters

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency?  The participation of accredited citizens’ arms and presence of other stakeholders during the conduct of verification and certification of voters list will raise public confidence regarding its accuracy, considering that the verification process involves multi-party checking. The policy of transparency is thus observed, in all aspect of the electoral process; and  Such mechanism, once made widely known to the public, increases awareness that the voters list utilized during elections is a product of extensive preparation of COMELEC personnel and counterchecking by ERB members and accredited citizens’ arms, witnessed by several stakeholders, no less.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability?  Verification and certification of the voters list is a responsibility that does not fall solely on COMELEC’s shoulders. The ERB Members composed of the Election Officer, Local Civil Registrar, and DepEd official most senior in rank, obviously come from different agencies, which make the process a multi-partite responsibility and accountability, shared amongst the Members, including the representatives of the citizens’ arms.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing and monitoring solutions?  COMELEC is constitutionally mandated to enforce and administer election laws and regulations. One of its main responsibilities in the conduct of election, is the generation and printing of complete and accurate voters list. Since a clean list is one of the necessary elements of a credible election, it is likewise the concern of the voting public to safeguard the same and ensure that those included in the list are truly qualified to vote. Being such, the engagement of the public in general is indispensable even in an observer capacity.

See action plan for commitment milestones and expected outputs.