The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is pushing through with the scheduled printing of the 50 million ballots next month even without the final number of new registrants.

“We can’t wait for the list of these new registrants. We will have to proceed,” Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said.

“We will print the ballots equivalent only to the exact number of registered voters per precinct,” he added.

As of November, the number of registered voters was 49.2 million.

Melo said those who registered in the next five days will be included in a separate list.

“Yung ma-reregister ngayon ika nga namin sa Supreme Court these five days of December will be in a separate list. Hindi na sila considered dun sa number. Dahil kung hihintayin pa natin yan…before we get the numbers, before they bring it back to us baka three weeks na. It will be beyond January 25 baka February something na in which case ika nga namin sa SC lalabas yung sa ating balota May 17 na,” he said.

‘Ihahabol nalang natin. Anyway it’s really not expected that in the precinct ang turnout ay 100 percent e,” added Melo.

The Comelec will start printing the ballots on January 25.

The poll chief, meantime, urged voters not to wait for the last day before registering.

“Baka sa last day mag-dagsaan. No more extension hindi na talaga puwede ma-extend that will be even going against the law,” Melo said.

Last week, the SC upheld the petition of the Kabataan party-list directing the commission to extend registration until January 9, 2010.

With the ruling, the Comelec set the voters’ registration on December 21, 22, 23, 28, and 29.

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

Kabataan Party-list, the largest youth party in the country and the only youth party-list in Congress, said the Comelec guidelines for the extended registration period were “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 completing of 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 executor,” said Kabataan Party-list vice-president Carl Marc Ramota. (With reports from Edmer F. Panesa and Francis T. Wakefield)

See also: "Group says extended voters' registration days not enough"