A party-list group on Monday slammed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over what it regarded as a selective implementation by the poll body of a Supreme Court decision extending the voters’ registration for the May 2010 elections.

The Kabataan party-list, the largest youth party in the country and the only youth party-list in Congress, described the Comelec guidelines for the extended registration period “contemptuous of the High Court’s order.”

Under Comelec Resolution No. 8719, the poll body only allotted five days – December 21, 22, 23, 28, and 29 – for the actual registration. The remaining days were set aside for administrative aspects of the registration like completion of the Book of Voters, posting notices of the Election Registration Board and hearings on oppositions to applications for registration.

“Comelec’s (move) to shorten the extended voters’ registration to just five days is simply unacceptable. Voters’ registration in fact should have resumed last week as the SC’s order is simply executory,” said Kabataan vice president Carl Marc Ramota.

In a unanimous decision last week, the SC nullified Comelec Resolution No. 8585 that shortened the registration period to Oct. 31, 2009 and granted the petition of the party-list to extend voters’ registration to January 9, 2010.

The High Court cited a provision in the Voters Registration Act of 1996 which says that the last day of registration should be 120 days before the day of elections.

Ramota said the five-day extension of registration was not enough to accommodate some four million registrants who will vote for the first time in May 2010.

He noted that while there was a significant increase in the number of registered voters from the last national elections, a lot of prospective first-time voters were unable to enlist during the shortened registration period.

“Throughout the registration process, a number of Comelec offices were only able to accommodate 200 to 300 registrants per day and even run out of registration forms in some areas,” Ramota explained.

“We expect a significant turnout of prospective first-time voters in the first three days of registration,” Ramota said as voters’ registration resumed yesterday (Monday). He urged youth voters to nevertheless take advantage of the five-day extended registration period.

“This is the best time to register for the upcoming elections as most students have already gone back to their home provinces and more work leaves are given to employees. We call our fellow youth and other eligible Filipinos to seize the holidays to register for the 2010 elections,” he said.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the party-list group said the youth sector would likely determine who the next president of the country will be owing to the number of first time registrants and voters.

Lawyer Julius Garcia Matibag said the four million first-time registrants and voters could very well decide the results of the elections.

“These new voters will most likely determine the fate of next year’s polls. The May 2010 elections are much highly anticipated and the stakes are high. The youth wish to effect change in the country by exercising their right of suffrage. They will determine who will take the oath of office (as president) come June 30, 2010,” Matibag said.

As of October 31, 2009, the poll body was able to accommodate only less than three million first-time registrants and voters from a conservative estimate of around seven million eligible first-time registrants and voters based on data from the National Statistics Office.

Matibag was the legal counsel of Kabataan party-list when it petitioned the Supreme Court to extend the voters’ registration in accordance with the system of continuing registration of voters under The Voter’s Registration Act.