Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will extend voter registration until the end of October, its chairman Sheriff Abas said on Wednesday.
Abas said the deadline for voter registration will be extended from October 9 to 31, moving the initial deadline of September 30.
“We will discuss the details, but ang initial na plano (the initial plan) is we will conduct this after the filing, so after October 8, that’s when we will start again the registration for the registration up to the end of October,” Abas told CNN Philippines when asked to confirm the extension of voter registration.
Asked again if there would be no voter registration during the filing of certificate of candidacy from October 1-8, Abas responded: “Yes, ganoon nga po, (That’s the case) because we are very busy accepting the various certificates of candidacies of various candidates all over the country.”
The en banc will formalize the declaration of voter registration extension on Wednesday afternoon, according to Abas.
Previously, Comelec did not want to extend voter registration due to the challenges it will create with the election timeline.
However, several groups and organizations and even lawmakers as well as Vice President Leni Robredo had appealed for the extension of voter registration.