Comelec wants even more women voters

Even with female voters outnumbering men, the Commission on Elections wants to encourage more women to exercise their right to suffrage and register as voters.

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the election would continue its campaign to have more women and girls sign up as voters in time for the 2017 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

“One of the Comelec’s guiding principles, such that all voters qualified to vote shall be given the opportunity to exercise their right to suffrage without discrimination in any form,” she said.

Guanzon is the chair of the Comelec’s gender and development committee.

Data from the Comelec showed that as of August 2016, there were 28,429,511 registered female voters or 51.5 percent out of the total 55,203,209 registered voters.

The remaining 26,773,698 male voters comprise 48.5 percent of the total number of registered voters.

One of the Comelec’s projects in increasing the number of female voters is to conduct satellite registration activities in government hospitals across the country.

The satellite registration activities will be held from March 1 to 8 as part of the observance of March as Women’s Month.

“Satellite registration activities from March 1 to March 8 will be held to help ensure wider women voter participation,” Guanzon said.