WITH still five days to go before the end of the voter registration period for the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it has reached its target number of voter registrants.
Speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with SM Malls for mall voter registration, acting Elections spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said: “We have actually reached our target. For purposes of planning, we are expecting to be at 66 million. In the May 9 elections, we are at 65 million plus.”
“Right now, for the regular voters, we have reached that mark, the 500,000 mark,” Laudiangco said, adding that the Comelec is also on track for the 23 million expected voters for the SK elections.
Earlier, the Comelec projected that the total number of registered voters for the barangay polls will be 66,053,357.
During the May 9 national and local polls, there were a total of 65.7 million registered voters.
As for SK voters, they are projected to reach 23,059,227 by the end of the registration period.
Back in the May 2018 polls, there were 20.6 million youth voters registered.
Data from the Comelec – Election and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD) show that there are 1,712,315 new registrants nationwide, as of July 18.
Broken down into types of voters, those aged 15-17 years old (SK voters) had 1,073,847 applicants; 18-30 years old (both SK and regular voters) with 547,389 applicants; and 31 years old and above (regular voters) with 91,079 applicants.
Aside from new registrants, the Comelec also received 291,519 applications for transfer from other cities/municipalities; 75,875 applications for transfer from within the same city/municipality; 11,827 applications for transfer with reactivation; 4,334 applications for transfer with reactivation and correction of entries; 14,773 applications for transfer with correction of entries; and 75,315 applications for reactivation.
The poll body also received 17,718 applications for reactivation with correction of entries; 48,518 applications for change of names/correction of entries; 80 applications for inclusion of record in the Book of Voters; 375 applications for reinstatement of name in the list of voters; and 4,579 applications for transfer from overseas voting to local.
Overall, the running total number of all types of applications, as of July 18, stands at 2,256,868 individuals.
The voter registration period for the December 5 poll exercise opened on July 4 and will run until July 23, 2022.
Voter registration is open from Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in all city/municipal Offices of Election Officer (OEOs).
Aside from local poll offices, the Comelec will also hold voter registration activities inside shopping malls in the last days of the period.
This after the poll body signed separate MOAs with SM Supermalls and Robinsons Malls yesterday.
According to Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, their partnerships with shopping malls will be valuable, especially with applicants expected to flock between today and Saturday.
“We are expecting that there will be more (applicants) as the last day draws closer. As we all know, when the last day comes, it is always a blockbuster,” said Ferolino, adding: “When we count the malls participating, that would allow a very high turnout for voter registration.”
Ferolino said they expect mall voter registration activities to be able to accommodate around 500 applicants per day.
