THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said it was confident of a high voter turnout in next year’s poll as registration ends without extension on September 30.
“No more extension. It will affect our timeline. We need to finalize the list of voters, we need to finalize the precinct cluster, the precinct that we will create because of additional voters and we need to finalize the list of voters who will be transferred to other precincts,” said Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia.
He added a surge was expected during the final weeks of registration, noting less than 100,000 of the 5.3 million deactivated voters were able to register.
Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia
Comelec records showed 5.3 million voters have been deactivated for failure to vote in two successive elections while another 600,000 were removed because of court order and death and other reasons.
“That’s six million voters and the biggest percentage is from the 5.3 million deactivated voters,” he added.
Garcia said that while there were 66 million registered voters, the P5.3 million deactivated voters would make it unlikely for the Comelec to meet the goal of 70 million voter turnout.
He added that Comelec has reached its goal of enlisting three million new voters.
Garcia reminded voters that the register anywhere project or RAP would end on Saturday, August 31, to allow the Comelec time for data processing.
Regular registration would continue in local and satellite Comelec offices.
Garcia said the city or municipal election registration board (ERB) would determine if a registration was valid or not.
Beginning February 2025 or three months before the midterm polls, the ERB of each municipality would review voters lists in the presence of representatives of political parties, candidates, stakeholders and interest groups.
A Filipino who is at least 18 years of age on election day, May 12, 2025, a resident of the Philippines for at least one year and in the place wherein he /she proposes to vote for at least six months immediately preceding the 2025 elections, and not otherwise disqualified by law, can register as a voter.
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