Comelec tallies 65.7 million voters, plus 1.6 million overseas

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has tallied more than 65.7 million registered voters for the May 9, 2022, elections even as it awaited the official count of registered overseas voters, estimated to reach 1.6 million.

The Comelec announced on Sunday that 65,745,529 Filipinos who are at least 18 years old are registered to vote, 3,901,758 more than the 61,843,771 registered for the last election in 2019.

About 52 percent, or 32.2 million registered voters, are 31 to 59 years old; 33 percent, or 20.4 million, are youth voters age 18 to 30; while 14 percent, or 9.1 million, are 60 and above.

For next year’s elections, Calabarzon has the most registered voters with 9,193,096, followed by Metro Manila with 7,322,361 and Central Luzon with 7,289,791 voters.

On the other hand, the Cordillera Administrative Region has the least registered voters with 1,077,900 followed by Caraga with 1,868,796 and Mimaropa with 1,991,599 voters.

The Comelec has established 412,876 polling precincts but grouped some of them so there would be 106,174 clustered precincts. There would be 37,141 voting centers.

Voter registration ended on Oct. 30. Congress ordered the Comelec to extend the process for another month due to pandemic lockdown.

Mock elections

The poll body plans to test its COVID-19 protocols for the 2022 elections by holding 34 mock elections on Dec. 29.

The poll body will simulate the entire election process in 34 barangays in Metro Manila and in the provinces of Isabela, Albay, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Maguindanao and Davao del Sur.

The first mock elections held in a Pasay City school on Oct. 23 failed after less than 500 of the target 4,235 voters participated.

The Comelec wanted to conduct time and motion studies on pandemic protocols, including temperature screening, limited voters in a room, physical distancing, frequent disinfection, and wearing of face masks and face shields.

Teopisto Elnas, operations chief of the Comelec, said they hoped 4,800 voters would join the mock polls set on Dec. 29.

Earlier, election officials estimated that they would have to have around 800 voters per precinct because they do not have enough vote-counting machines for fewer voters per precinct.