THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday issued a final call for all qualified Filipinos, both here and abroad, to enlist as voters today, which is the last day for the application period to become registered voters in time for the May 2025 national and local elections.

In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said the poll body “has no intentions of extending the registration period,” which started on February 12.

“The end of the voter registration period is September 30,” Garcia stressed.

From February 12 to September 19, the Comelec received 6,442,112 applications for voter registration across the country.

Garcia said the same principle shall be applied regarding overseas voter registration, saying the nearly two-year period, or since December 9, 2022, provided is more than enough.

“That’s almost two years of registration period. In our mind, that’s already quite a long time, and would no longer need any extension,” he said.

As of the latest data, there are currently 1.180 million overseas voters registered. It is projected to have 1.486 million registered overseas voters for the 2025 polls.

The Comelec has set the procedures for the last day of voter registration in all Offices of Election Officers (OEOs) under Resolution No. 10963.

Under the guidelines, if at 3 p.m. today there are still persons waiting in line to file their applications for registration within a 30-meter radius from the OEO, the Election Assistant (EA) shall list down their names consecutively numbered.

The applicants shall then be called by announcing each name repeatedly three times in the order in which they were listed.

Any applicant who is not present when his or her name is called shall no longer be allowed to file his or her application for registration or transfer or reactivation.

On the other hand, if the applicant is present when his or her name is called, his or her application shall be processed and his or her biometrics data captured.

“The same procedure shall continue until all those listed shall have been processed,” said the Comelec.