ONLY legislation from Congress can effectively solve the election problem about 'ghost voters' or registered voters who have already died, but their names have not been expunged because the Commission on Elections (Comelec) could not legally remove them on its own without a certification from the Office of the Civil Registrar (OCR).

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia pointed this out on Thursday during the National Convention and Congress of Civil Registrar personnel in Cebu City, saying that the poll body and the OCR were both hounded by budgetary problems on the issuance of the death certificate.