The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday issued the guidelines for the application for accreditation of civil society organizations (CSOs) that intend to participate in the verification of the list of registered voters for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE).
Promulgated August 16 by the Comelec en banc, Resolution No.11042 sets the rules for the accreditation of verifier-certifier civil society organizations (VC-CSOs), who will be tasked to extend aid to the Election Registration Boards (ERBs) in verifying and certifying the voter list.
Any bona fide CSOs are eligible to apply at any time up to 60 days before the date scheduled for verification of the list of registered voters. Any duly authorized officer of the organizations will be required to send their application to the Election and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD), which shall check and verify the completeness of the submitted application.
The Comelec en banc will summarily decide to approve or disapprove a CSO’s application. Accredited citizens’ arms may participate in the verification without applying as VC-CSOs.
“The authority of the VC-CSO to participate in the verification and certification of the list of voters is generally understood to be for a particular election only, unless the commission otherwise provides in their accreditation,” the resolution reads.
“Should the VC-CSO wish to renew their application for the next succeeding election, a letter requesting for the renewal of their accreditation, as well as on updated form must be submitted. Other supporting documents need not be submitted unless there are supervening events or changes in the organization’s mandates, operations or leadership,” it said.
Latest data from the poll body showed the number of registered voters reached 65.9 million as of August 7.
In March, the Comelec said the list of registered voters to be posted outside polling precincts for the 2025 polls would also include photos. The National Privacy Commission in June said the poll body should put in place measures that would ensure data privacy protection for its proposal to include photos in the list of registered voters outside polling precincts for the 2025 polls.—RF, GMA Integrated News
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