Biometrics refers to the registrant’s picture, fingerprint and signature recorded by a computer during the registration period. The system supposedly helps the Comelec in purging the final list of multiple registrants.

Even so, the Comelec said they can still vote in the 2013 elections.

Provincial Comelec Supervisor Jessie Suarez yesterday said the 88,955 voters without biometric records, represent 8.61 percent of the 1,032,832 registered voters in the province as of Oct. 15.

Suarez said he expects an increase in the number of voters after the hearing of the Election Registration Board on Nov. 19.

He also said the number of voters without biometric records in Negros Occidental is low, compared to other provinces in Western Visayas.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said voters under the manual system can still vote since Congress still has no law making biometric registration mandatory for voting in the 2013 elections.*GPB

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