Comelec sees over 60M registered voters after Sept. 30

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expecting the number of registered voters in the country to exceed 60 million at the end of the registration on September 30.

Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr., said Friday they are boosting their efforts to encourage the public to register and to make the process of registration easier for them.

“One of the things we do right now is to make it easier for our people to register. We have the I-rehistro, where the people can download their application and go to the Offices of Elections Officer (OEOs). We also have satellite registration, wherein our EOs will have to go to the ground to the communities to administer the registration,” Kho said in a Laging Handa presser.

Kho is expecting that with these measures in place, they would be able to increase the number of registrants for the May 2022 National and Local Elections (NLE)

“Hopefully with all these measures will increase our registration. As of now, based on the data that was given to me, out of the April ERB (Election Registration Board) hearing we are close to 60 million. There will be ERB hearings in July and October, so we expect to reach around 60 million-plus,” he said.

He said the country has over 61.8 million voters during the 2019 elections.

After the recent polls, they have deactivated around seven million voters due to several reasons, including failure to vote in two consecutive elections.

“From there we conducted the continued registration. As of April, after the ERB hearing, we have around 59 million voters registered,” Kho said.

The voter registration nationwide resumed on Sept. 1, 2020. It will run until Sept. 30, 2021.

Applicants are instructed to file their application for registration before OEOs in the city/municipality where they intend to vote.

The local Comelec offices are open on Mondays to Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.