6.9 million new registered voters for May 9 polls — Comelec

MANILA, Philippines — There are now almost seven million new registered voters for the May 9 polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported Thursday.

“We have new registrants, registration, mga bago nating (our new) registered voters umabot po ito ng (reached) 6,950,449,” Commissioner George Garcia said in a press briefing.

“Take note, new registrants po ‘yan. Hindi pa po kasama ‘yung mga SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) na dating 15 to 17 na automatically makakaboto na… ‘Yun naman po ay 1,520,500,” he added.

(Take note, those are new registrants. Those who were 15- to 17-year olds who are SK leaders are not included in the count as they can automatically vote. They are 1,520,500.)

The SK is a council that provides opportunities to the youth to participate in local governance.

The Comelec’s latest data shows there are 65.8 million registered voters for the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, 755,769 registration records were canceled due to deaths. Garcia said that there may be more individuals not removed from the list of registered voters.

“‘Yung mga nagka-COVID tapos nadala sa ibang lugar, doon nagamot, tapos doon po namatay, may posibilidad talaga na maaaring hindi sila natanggal kasi nga po maghihintay yung local Comelec, base sa batas, ng certification mula sa Civil Registrar kung saan namatay ‘yun pong nagka-COVID,” he explained.

(Those who got COVID and were sent to another place for treatment but eventually died, there is a possibility that they are not removed from the list because the local Comelec, based on law, is waiting for certification from the Civil Registrar where the person died.)

Garcia then called on family members or relatives of deceased voters to submit their death certificates to the local Comelec office for the removal of the name from the list of voters.

/MUF

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TAGS: Comelec, Elections, new voters, Polls, voters

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