Age restrictions in quarantine rules hinder young, elderly to vote — Zamora 

SATELLITE REGISTRANTS From serious shopping to getting serious with their voting rights, these mall-goers fill up Commission on Elections (Comelec) forms at a Taguig mall. The Comelec set up satellite registration booths in several malls to reach out to more voters as part of its preparation for the May 2016 national election. INQUIRER file photo / EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines — Those who are within the age brackets restricted to go out of their homes might just have to wait until Metro Manila shifts to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) before they could go out and register to vote, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said Tuesday.

Under the government’s COVID-19 task force guidelines, persons aged 21 years below and 60 years above are not allowed to go out unless it is for accessing essential goods and services and for work.

“Right now there are still no guidelines changing the age restriction so everyone who’s 21 and below and 60 and above cannot go out except if you will exercise, or you have a medical emergency,” Zamora said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel when sought for comment on how the quarantine status is affecting voter registration.

“The voter registration will disallow those who are 18 to 21 to register at this point. I guess once we reach a point that we will shift to MGCQ, that will be the time they can go out and register. But everyone who is within the age that can go out can do so already,” he added.

Metro Manila will remain under general community quarantine for the entire month of October.

Voter registration resumed in September nationwide except in areas under strict quarantine or under enhanced community quarantine and modified enhanced community quarantine.

Earlier, local governments in Metro Manila said it will ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to postpone the voters’ registration to January 2021 or when the region eases to MGCQ.

The Comelec admitted having a low number of voter registration turnout due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said there are so far only about 250,000 applications processed, far from their projected number of voter registrants at four million.

JPV