By LOVE ILUSTRE, DXSM
JOLO, Sulu— Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan said he is grateful to President Benigno Aquino for pursuing electoral reforms like the general registration of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which would give the people a clean slate in the 2013 elections.
Tan also commended the Commission on Election for an orderly, systematic and generally peaceful registration.
The ARMM which comprises five provinces including Sulu is in the middle of a 10-day general registration that began in July 9 and ends July 18. It was intended to purge the old voters’ lists which was suspected of being padded. Cases of election fraud have been reported in many ARMM areas in previous elections.
In a presentation depicting the thrusts of his administration posted on the website of Sulu province, Tan said Sulu ranks as the 13th poorest province in the country.
The report said the province has “poor physical infrastructure and support facilities” that include its airport, seaport and road
network.” Only 59 percent of the barangays are have electricity and there is poor access to potable water supply.
As of 4 p.m. July 13, partial data from Comelec through the ARMM Task Force Registration showed that Sulu had 85, 443 registrants.
The same data showed that Lanao del Sur had a total 184,257 registrants; Maguindanao, 208,119; Tawi-Tawi 25,342 and Basilan
33,345.
All in all, the partial results on the fifth day of the 10-day registration show there are 536,506 who have registered so far.
(Love Ilustre is a reporter for the Jolo-based radio station DXSM. ARMM WATCH is a project of VERA Files in partnership with MindaNews, The Asia Foundation and Australian Agency for International Development.)
