Over 1.2 million new voters registered as of July 14, says Comelec

The number of new voter registrants has reached 1,209,888 as of July 14, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Saturday.

This is broken down into 761,684 new voters aged 15 to 17 years old; 383,836 new voters aged 18 to 30; and 64,368 voters aged 31 and above, Acting Comelec spokesperson Atty. John Rex Laudiangco said.

The poll body resumed the voter registration on July 4.

Meanwhile, the Comelec said it received 202,707 applications from voters to transfer their registration from other cities or municipalities for the barangay elections, and 2,001 such transfer for the Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Applications for transfer from within the same city or municipality meanwhile numbered 51,677 for barangay elections and 497 for SK elections.

Those who applied for reactivation with transfer totaled 8,534.

Meanwhile, voters who applied to transfer their registration with reactivation and correction of entries reached 3,100.

Applications for transfer with correction of entries on the other hand reached 10,544.

Total applications for reactivation received numbered 55,643.

Those who applied for reactivation with correction of entries reached 13,062.

On the other hand, the poll body received 36,583 applications for change of names or correction of entries.

Laudiangco said the Comelec received 51 applications for inclusion of record in the book of voters.

Meanwhile, 17 applied to have their names reinstated in the list of voters.

A total of 3,480 voters on the other hand applied for transfer from overseas voting to local.

In all, the Comelec processed a total of 1,597,784 applications as of July 14.

Voter registration will continue until July 23.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB on Saturday, Laudiangco said the poll body is looking into extending the hours for voters' registration. Currently, the hours for registration are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday, at the Office of the Election Officer in cities and municipalities.

"Pinag-aaralan ng Comelec kung pwedeng mapalawig ang oras ng voters' registration," he said.

Laudiangco also said they are looking for bigger venues that would be more convenient for voter registrants.

"Humahanap kami ng mga lugar na mas malaki at mas convenient para sa voters' registration gaya ng mga mall... Dinagdagan din natin ang ating mga personnel para mapabilis ang mga pila," he said.

(We are looking for venues that are bigger and more convenient for voters' registration such as malls. We are also adding personnel to speed up the waiting time.)

Laudiangco said the Comelec initially targeted 500,000 new voters who will register during the said period, but this has already been surpassed.

"Kami po ay lumampas na sa inaasahan naming target... Ang taya namin noon, nasa 500,000 inaasahan natin for regular voters," he said.

(We already went over our target. We expected only 500,000 to register as regular voters.)

"Mataas ang bilang ng mga kababayan nating nagpapatala para voters' registration," Laudiangco added.

(We have a high number of our countrymen wanting to register as voters.) —KG, GMA News