An urban poor group Monday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ban demolitions and distance relocations during the election period so as not to disenfranchise voters.

The Urban Poor Association (UPA), a non-government organization that concentrates on evictions of urban poor people, in their petition-letter said the Comelec should impose a ban on demolitions as this would only result to the disenfranchisement of voters in the May 10 polls.

“This May 2010 election is expected to create change in the Philippine governance and it is people’s right to exercise their right to vote and to elect leaders. Hence not a single voter should be denied this right. Forced evictions and relocating informal settlers to distant places in time of election is unlawful as they will surely disenfranchise members of the urban poor. Hence, we urge Comelec, the most powerful government agency during elections to ban demolitions and distant relocation.” UPA Legal Counsel Bienvenido Salinas said.

The group cited the experience of a former railway dweller in Makati who was disenfranchised in the 2007 elections because she was among those forcibly relocated in Cabuyao, Laguna to give way to the government’s Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project.

“When we were forcibly relocated to Cabuyao, Laguna more or less we had 4,000 voters prepared for the 2007 election. But only 400 were able to vote because most of us were not yet settled in the relocation site and did not have the required six-month residency,” said Estrella Terencio.

“We are one with all the urban poor facing demolition in calling on the Comelec to ban demolitions because we know that they could also be disenfranchised just as we experienced in the last election,” she added.

A resident affected by the government rehabilitation project of Manggahan Floodway is appealing to the Comelec not to let the same thing happen this 2010.