June 22, 2006
Potential voters up 17 million by December

(El Universal) - "Sandra Oblitas, president of the National Electoral Council's (CNE) Civil and Electoral Register Board, estimated that, based on forecasts made by the official National Statistics Institute (INE), potential voters are to amount to 17 million by December, when the presidential election is to be held.

Further, she dismissed media reports making fun of the fact that in the voters' census there are two people whose name is Superman. When asked about these cases, she replied: 'Parents name their children, not the CNE.'

Further, she ensured that 'ilogical data' would be purged out of the Electoral Register. In this direction, she said the deceased would be excluded from the voters' census. Regarding voters registered with names such as XXXX and Superman, Oblitas said such cases are under observation. CNE is to match the data recorded in the Electoral Register to the National Identification Office (Onidex) database.

Oblitas added that a certified copy of the final voters' census would not be delivered to presidential candidates before September 4th.

'Under the law, once the final electoral register is okayed, a certified copy may be delivered to presidential candidates.'

'Based on the National Statistics Institute, and having in mind the fact that a forecast based on the 2001 demographics can have an error margin, by December people over 18 years are expected to exceed 17 million', she replied when asked how many people over 18 years -the legal age to vote- have not registered with the Electoral Register".