A key ally of President Arroyo echoed Sunday the warning made by Liberal Party standard bearer Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III that civil unrest could transpire if this year's election fails due to the refusal of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to purge the voters' list.

Speaker Prospero Nograles claimed that while he believes that Aquino's grim scenario “is nearly remote,” the Comelec seems to be providing the right excuse for some people to stir civil chaos.

“While I don't subscribe with this scenario being painted by Senator Noynoy, the Comelec's lack of pro-active thinking is also very frustrating. It seems we only provided the Comelec billions of poll automation fund not to make the elections clean and credible but to make election cheating faster and more efficient,” Nograles claimed.

Taking his cue from the findings of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting that there are more than 40,000 multiple/double registrants and dead registrants in Davao City and Davao del Sur province, Nograles urged the Comelec to cleanse its voters list to avert the possibility of multiple voting.

He also filed a petition for mandamus before the Supreme Court to compel the Comelec to cleanse its voters' list instead of relying on a so-called “watchlist” which the poll body said would be adequate to address the problem on multiple/double registrants and dead registrants.

Nograles is particularly worried about this issue because based on the estimate of the PPCRV, there are around 2.3 million up to 5 million double/multiple registrants all over the country and this figure he said, “is enough to determine the outcome of the May 2010 elections particularly in the presidential and vice-presidential race.”

“These multiple/double registrants can make or unmake a presidential candidate if the Comelec will continue looking the other way instead of simply cleansing its voters' list right away,” Nograles said.