INTERIOR Secretary Eduardo Año yesterday backed the call of Metro Manila’s 17 mayors to re-schedule to January next year the ongoing registration of voters amid the continued spike in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in the country.
The registration of new voters and overseas workers for the 2022 national and local elections resumed on Tuesday, September 1, after months of delay prompted by the strict lockdowns imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus.
“If it will not derail their time schedule, it is better that we grant the request of the mayors,” Año said.
The Metro Manila Council (MMC) has asked the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to approve its recommendation, pointing to the high risk of COVID-19 exposure while registrants line up outside the offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Election spokesman James Jimenez on Tuesday Jimenez said it would be difficult to reschedule the voter registration activity for the May 2022 elections as it has already resumed after six months of being suspended.
The resumption happened on the same day that Metro Manila’s quarantine classification improved to the relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ), which is effective for the entire month of September. Other areas placed under GCQ were Batangas, Bulacan and the cities of Tacloban and Bacolod.
Año said resetting the voter registration will allow the mayors to focus their attention in isolating people who tested positive for COVID-19 and those who are suspected to have contracted the disease.
“And at the same time, we can continue the conduct of mass testing and allow the LGUs to focus,” he said.
Año said there is a high risk that protocols on social distancing will be violated during the voter registration, noting the long lines of people who are expected to flock to local election offices to participate in the electoral activity. “You don’t know who are positive,” he said.
Año, a member of the IATF-EID, said the task force has yet to make a decision whether to endorse the recommendation of the mayors. “We want the numbers to go down and there are indicators of flattening the curve so let us continue the momentum,” he said.