TACLOBAN CITY- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the region has called on qualified voters to visit their respective elections offices to register as the listing up is to end next week.
Lawyer Felicisimo Embalsado, assistant regional director, said that to accommodate possible rush of registrants with the deadline nearing, the Comelec has extended the registration time from 8 am until 7 pm and from 8 am until 5 pm during weekends.
The registration is to end on September 30, a day before candidates seeking for national and local elective posts in next year’s elections are to file their certificates of candidacy.
“I am calling those who are qualified to register or those who will turn 18 years old on the day of the elections on May 9, 2022 or those who will be 18 years old before May 9, 2022 to register so that you can participate in the democratic processes of choosing our national and local leaders,” he said.
“There will be no extension because we are following a timeline,” Embalsado added.
In Congress, measures to move for another month of the registration is now pending.
Since the listing up started January of this year, 262,555 prospective voters have registered at their respective Comelec offices.
And of this number, 118,820 were new registrants. The rest were either for activation of their voter’s registration or transfer of their voting place.
In Tacloban City, an average of at least 200 registrants visit the Comelec office.
So far, over 6,500 have been enlisted at the city polling office. Tacloban City, at present, has 134,681 registered voters.
Eastern Visayas, composed of six provinces, is expected to have more than 3 million registered and qualified voters who are to troop to their polling precincts in next year’s elections.
(LIZBETH ANN A.ABELLA)
