THREE months before the end of voter registration, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 7 has reached more than half of its target of new registrants for the May 2025 midterm elections, according to a poll official.
Omar Sharif Mamalinta, spokesman of the Comelec 7, told SunStar Cebu on Saturday, June 1, 2024, that they have registered 229,253 registrants, just 41,500 (85 percent) short of reaching their goal of 270,753 new registrants.
The Comelec 7’s target for the midterm elections is five percent of the region’s current registered voters of more than five million.
The poll body started its voter registration last Feb. 12 and will end it on Sept. 30.
According to Mamalinta, the Comelec 7’s target is just a portion of the central office’s target of three million new voters for the midterm polls.
“We are confident that we will reach such a figure by the end of the voter registration,” said Mamalinta.
Before the start of the registration, the Comelec recorded a total of 5,415,071 voters from the provinces of Bohol with 981,785; Cebu with 3,384,198; Negros Oriental with 969,874; and Siquijor with 80,214 registered voters.
Since the start of registration on Feb. 12, Comelec 7 has registered 229,253 voters — 150,731 from Cebu; 48,776, Negros Oriental; 26,568, Bohol; and 3,178, Siquijor.
Information campaign
Mamalinta stated that Comelec offices nationwide have conducted extensive information dissemination through all forms of media, both traditional and social, to reach a wider segment of the voting populace.
In Comelec 7’s satellite office in Carcar City in the south of Cebu, Mamalinta initiated several programs to encourage more voters to register.
“I coordinated with Carcar City Health Office chief, Dr. Felmar Deza, to have a daily blood pressure check and monitoring for our registrants as this will be of help in taking care of our clients, especially when we experience humid temperature,” he said.
Comelec Carcar City’s Facebook page also introduced “Speak Up Corner,” a segment where they randomly interview registrants to ask about their registration experience, voting experience and the importance of being a registered voter; and invite potential registrants to register before the deadline.
“It is an initiative that empowers the registrants themselves,” he said. / CDF