APPLICATIONS for the ongoing voter registration for Central Visayas have breached the 150,000-voter mark, a local election officer said.
The figure includes all applications for voter registration received in the nine weeks since voter registration opened for the 2025 midterm election.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received 151,880 applications from the opening of voter registration on Feb. 12 until last Saturday, April 13, spokesperson Omar Sharif Mamalinta of the Comelec Cebu said last Sunday, April 14, 2024.
As reported earlier, the Comelec central office in Manila announced that the voter registration will be open until Sept. 30.
Additionally, all election offices nationwide were instructed to accept registrants even on Saturdays and holidays, with the exception of last March 28, 29 and 30, in observance of the Holy Week.
Last March 21, Comelec Central Visayas already received at least 105,117 voter applications for the first five weeks of registration.
More females
Of the 151,880 applicants, the regional election office disclosed that 75,235 registrants were male, while 76,645 were female in terms of assigned sex at birth.
By province, Cebu led with 102,340 processed applications, followed by Negros Oriental with 30,967, Bohol with 16,176, and Siquijor with 2,397.
On Monday, April 15, Mamalinta said highly urbanized areas received the most voter registrations.
He said that currently, the top five areas with the most number of applications for registration are the second district of Cebu City with 401,108 applications, then the first district of Cebu City with 340,367, Lapu-Lapu City with 256,171, Mandaue City with 236,669, and Talisay City with 154,071.
In a report last Feb. 18, SunStar Cebu said the Comelec projected a 10 percent increase in the number of registered voters in Central Visayas.
Ivan Jason delos Santos, Comelec administration officer, said that during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in October 2023, the region had 5,415,071 registered voters.
A 10 percent increase would bring the total number of registered voters to 5,956,578. / KJF