The Commission on Election (COMELEC) will extend its voter registration from October 11 to October 30, after en banc unanimously approved the request to extend the initial September 30 deadline, said spokesperson James Jimenez on Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Voter registration is open from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be no registration on Saturdays, except for October 30. Moreover, according to Comelec Commissioner, Rowena Guanzon, reactivation is still done via email or personal appearance,
From October 1 to 8, the polling body will not accommodate voter applications to give way for the submission of certificates of candidacy (COC), and that the registration will resume on October 11 to 30. Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas noted that the eight-day gap was settled upon due to logistical and manpower needs during the COCs filing.
Meanwhile, the registration of overseas voters is extended from October 1 to 14. "Note that for overseas voting, the filing of COCs is not an issue, thus the extension starts immediately," Jimenez said.
COMELEC had twice turned down requests for voter registration extensions, claiming that doing so would jeopardize preparations for the 2022 elections.
Following previous suspensions due to COVID-19 lockdowns, there has been a call for an extension.
As of September 11, 2021, there are 63 million registered voters for the 2022 Philippine elections. The figure exceeds COMELEC's prediction of 59 million voters for the upcoming elections.
The updated figure provided by the COMELEC is still 10 million short of the Philippine Statistics Authority's estimate of 73.3 million voters in 2022.
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