Comelec eyes sign-up, reactivation of 5M more voters

The voter registration will run until the last week of May. (File Photo: Element5 Digital/Unsplash)

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to register and reactivate some 5 million regular and youth voters during the six-month voter registration period which begins in the last week of November.

In a press briefing Thursday, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia sought the help of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials in encouraging their constituents to register.

“Support us in our voter education information, because in the end, with more voters participating, it would only mean that we have a successful election,” Garcia added.

He said changes in electoral activities will be included in a resolution that they will issue.

This came as the poll body confirmed that voter registration activities will resume after the December 2022 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKEs) have been moved to the last Monday of October next year.

The voter registration will run until the last week of May.

As part of Comelec’s purpose to encourage more registrants, he said they will be implementing its “register anywhere policy” in Metro Manila and some selected cities in the country by next month.

“We will do a pilot test in NCR, we will also try it in major cities nationwide. The Commission on Elections has the ability to do that…we have created a task force, a committee that will study and to implement it fully, and at the same time, make sure that the implementation of ‘register anywhere’ will be successful,” Garcia said.

Garcia reiterated that the Commission would always adhere to what the law dictates, in response to queries regarding the election body’s clout in the resetting of the BSKE.

“As far as the Comelec is concerned, this (postponement of the BSKE) is a political decision. We reserve this to the wisdom of our executive and legislative (departments). The Comelec is merely the administering arm of the government, meaning, we administer the election, we execute the decisions of the political departments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Garcia reported that they have printed more than five million BSKE ballots dated Dec. 5, 2022.

He added that they will issue a resolution that will allow the ballots to be used in the October 2023 BSKE.

As for the needed additional budget amounting to PHP10 billion for the conduct of the village and youth elections in October. This would be allotted for the additional election paraphernalia, cost for the printing of more ballots, ballot boxes and supplementary honoraria for the members of the electoral board that would increase in number, following the upsurge of voters and precincts as well,” he said.

The BSKE has been postponed twice since 2018.

It was supposed to be held in 2016 but was moved to 2017 based on RA 10923.

But the polls set for the succeeding year were likewise postponed to 2018 as approved by RA 10952. The polls in 2018 were finally held.

The next village and youth polls which are set to be held in 2020, were reset to 2022 as stated in RA 11462.

The December 2022 polls were postponed to 2023 under RA 11935 signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Oct. 10.