INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — More than six million voters, who were removed from the list of registrants, were asked to register again for the May 2022 elections, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said Tuesday.
Guanzon said these voters were removed for failure to vote in the last two consecutive polls.
“’Yung hinahanap nating registrants na na-drop sa listahan, ‘yung 6,300,000, nananawagan na po ako na magparehistro na po kayo. Hindi sila bumoto yung last two consecutive elections. Magparehistro po kayo, maliban sa 2.9 million pa na 18 years old na hinihintay namin magparegister tuwing Sabado,” said Guanzon over ABS-CBN Teleradyo.
(We are looking at 6.3 million registrants who were deleted from our list. We appealed to them to go out and register. They did not vote in the last two consecutive elections. Please register, this is aside from the 2.9 million 18-year-old potential voters that we are expecting to register during Saturdays.)
In a previous tweet, Guanzon announced that voter registration is allowed from Tuesdays to Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Feb. 20. The poll body extended its schedule from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. to allow more people to register.
Voter applicants must wear face masks and face shields, and bring valid government-issued identification cards, and own pens. Guanzon said Comelec will not accept passports and school IDs.
To date, Comelec recorded over a million new voter applications for the 2022 polls but it is still short of the 4 million new voters that it is expecting.