THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Negros Occidental has noted a high turnout in the recently-concluded voter's registration for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Provincial Comelec Supervisor Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria said yesterday, July 26, that a total of 116,045 applicants have registered in the province including Bacolod City from July 4 to 23, 2022.
Of the figure, almost half are SK voters, Ananoria said.
"It's beyond what is expected," he said, pointing out that the Election Registration Board (ERB) will still conduct a hearing on August 1, 2022 on possible petitions and opposition against some voter-registrants.
After the hearing, the lists will be finalized and determined how many are transferee voters, SK and new voters.
"The basis for disqualification of voters is non-residency or being non-Filipino citizen," Ananoria said.
Ananoria said that there were voter-applicants who were not able to register after they failed to meet the 12 midnight of July 23 deadline. Though, the Comelec has yet to determine the exact number of these applicants.
This happened in five localities, he added.
Meanwhile, the election provincial supervisor reiterated that as far as the Comelec is concerned, the Barangay and SK polls will push through on December 5 this year.
He, however, said that the Congress still has enough time to pass a legislation postponing the scheduled election.
In Bacolod City, the ERB will conduct its hearing for new registrants on August 1 to 4, 2022.
City Election Officer Atty. Kathrina Trinio-Caña said yesterday that they will evaluate all of the documents submitted by the new registrants.
During the entire registration period, Comelec-Bacolod recorded a total of 10, 286 voter registrants in the city who are subject for ERB hearing.
The ERB is chaired by Trinio-Caña along with its members, the Civil Registrar Office and Department of Education (DepEd)-Bacolod.
Trinio- Caña said that of the total registrants, 4, 067 are registrants aged 15 to 17; 2, 885 registrants aged 18 to 30; and 950 aged 31 years old and above.
Some 1,267 registrants are for transfer from other city or municipality; 367 transfer within the same city; 164 - application for transfer with reactivation; 32 - application for transfer with reactivation and correction of entries; 36 - application for transfer with correction of entries; 418 - application of reactivation; 33 - application for reactivation with correction of entries; 45 - application for change of name or correction of entries; and 23 - application for transfer from other areas.
She said they were given a directive to evaluate at least 1,000 applications per day, and that they will double their efforts to finish it by August 4.
“For now, we don’t receive any opposition on the application of an individual. But those who want to file an opposition, they only have until July 28 to submit it in the office,” she added.
Trinio-Caña also said there will be no extension of voters’ registration for the Barangay and SK polls.*