(UPDATED) The voter registration period for the May 2022 elections will be extended, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc unanimously decided Wednesday, September 29, 2021.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said voter registration will end as scheduled on Thursday, September 30, but will resume on October 11, not October 9 as announced earlier by a Comelec official. It will continue until October 30, 2021.
Jimenez said voter registration in October will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday. There will be no registration services on Saturdays, except on October 30 which is the last day.
Registration of overseas voters is also extended for two weeks, from October 1 to 14.
"Note that for overseas voting, the filing of COCs (certificates of candidacy) is not an issue, thus the extension starts immediately," Jimenez said.
Filing of COCs is scheduled for October 1 to 8.
Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas announced the extension in a television interview a few hours before the Comelec en banc held its meeting.
Jimenez also announced in a social media post Tuesday evening, September 28, that the Comelec en banc was likely to extend voter registration to heed public clamor.
“After consultation with Comelec officials, and in consideration of the public clamor, it is likely that an extension of the period of voter registration will be granted,” Jimenez said.
Long queues of voters seeking to register have been forming in front of Comelec offices since last week, with some applicants joining the line at dawn.
The House of Representatives on Monday, September 27, unanimously approved on third and final reading a bill extending the voter registration period for one month.
House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, which showed that 73 million voters are qualified to participate in the May 2022 elections.
As of August 23, however, Velasco said around 12 million voters had not registered. He noted that the Comelec reported that there were around 61 million registered voters nationwide.
Velasco noted that voter registration was suspended for six months in 2020 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. It was again suspended for several weeks in 2021 as several areas were again placed under stricter quarantine restrictions. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)