The voters’ list for May 10, 2010 automated elections is padded by five million, a senior Roman Catholic prelate bared Tuesday.

Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he got this information from a former commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) whom he met last week.

“This person started the cleansing of the voters’ list up to 2005. After that when she was out of office, the Comelec did not continue the cleansing so it became even more. That is the estimate that she has and I got that in writing,” he said.

Cruz, however, refused to reveal the name of the ex-commissioner.

The prelate’s revelation came days after the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), a Church-backed poll watchdog, uncovered some 40,000 double registrants in the posted computerized voters’ list (PCVL) in Davao City and Davao del Sur.

Aside from the voters’ list being padded up to five million nationwide, he also warned candidates of other possible problems that might come up on Election Day for the first automated polls.

“If you cluster 4 to 5 precincts you’ll have 1,000 voters. If the voting is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 1,000 people to vote, everybody has only 43.2 seconds to look for his or her name, to register, to get the ballot, fill it up and feed it,” said Cruz.

Another concern of the prelate is the reported 5,000 cell phone signal jammers that might not delay the transmission of the election results but also stops the transmission.

Cruz said candidates should also be wary of “dagdag-bawas” operators that are still in the Comelec.

“The dagdag-bawas structrue is intact. They (Comelec) only dismissed one but they are all there,” he said.