Gatchalian wants Comelec to hold voter registration during weekends due to ECQ implementation

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday told the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to work during weekends to cover for the two-week suspension of voter registration due to the reimposition of enhance community quarantine in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Comelec should do overtime. If they need to come in Saturday, Sundays to cover that lost ground, they should do it because we owe it to our people to get registered and we want them to register because the more people who will vote, the better for our democracy,” Gatchalian said in an ANC interview.

Gatchalian cited the Senate’s plan to hold sessions until Thursday as an example to cover for their lost time during the implementation of ECQ.

Should the Comelec decide not to extend the voter registration period, the lawmaker said the Senate can exercise its oversight power to address this concern.

“We are not telling them to extend or come up with additional dates, but what we are telling them at least from my point of view is to do overtime, to come in Saturday [and] Sunday to cover that lost ground,” he said.

“If we are talking about the two-week ECQ that is only 10 days you can cover that in five weekends so that is not so much for them to do,” he added.

Apart from Gatchalian, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senator Risa Hontiveros asked the poll body to extend the voter registration period in light of the reimplementation of ECQ in some areas in the country.

Metro Manila will be placed under ECQ from August 6 to 20 in a bid to slow down the transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country.

Last Friday, the poll body announced that it would suspend voter registration in the capital region during the implementation of the ECQ.

On Monday, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body has not discussed any possibility to extend the voter registration for Eleksyon 2022 beyond its deadline.

The voter registration period will end on September 30, 2021.

In June, Comelec said at least 60 million voters had already registered for next year's national and local polls.—AOL, GMA News