BILANG PILIPINO | COMELEC won’t extend voter registration period but approves longer hours

August 18, 2021 , 12:41 PM

By Beatrice Puente

(August 18, 2021) – Ignoring lawmakers’ appeal for an extension, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said the voter registration will end on September 30, a spokesman said on Wednesday, but it will allow longer work hours to accommodate new registrants.

In an en banc meeting, the election body’s commissioners raised concerns the extension might delay the preparations for the 2022 national elections and decided against the proposals from lawmakers and youth sectors.

Health concerns amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also played a factor.

“The en banc also unanimously approved the extension of voter registration hours, as well as the opening of voter registration on Saturdays and holidays, for the remainder of the voter registration period,” Jimenez said.

Voter registration on weekdays and weekends will close at 7 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.

Lawmakers from both chambers of Congress filed resolutions seeking to convince the COMELEC to extend the registration until at least October 31, considering the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and other provinces.

Seven senators emphasized the registration period had been postponed several times since last year, exposing the need to give Filipinos more time to register. Upper house lawmakers believed that a one-month extension would not derail the preparations of COMELEC for next year.

At the lower house, congressmen from the left-wing Makabayan bloc filed a counterpart resolution at the lower chamber. In their estimates, around 13.1 million voters might be affected if the commission refuses to extend the registration period beyond next month.

“Extending voter registration is all the more a prudent thing to do,” the Makabayan lawmakers wrote. “[It] is already an imperative [since there are] heavier reasons to reimplement it now more than ever … It now falls upon the COMELEC’s prerogative to adjust the deadline due to the ramifications of the pandemic.”

While the COMELEC turned down these calls, the agency has also opened other ways through which the delisted voters—those who were unable to partake in the last two polls—can reactivate their status through online means. It primarily caters to senior citizens and persons with disabilities but everyone can avail of this option.

Delisted voters only need to submit their registration forms to election officers through email, along with the supplementary requirements demanded by COMELEC. Voters only need to show up in offices if they lack biometric records to comply with government laws and regulations.

“Dahil nga pandemya, medyo nahihirapan silang mag-reactivate so we’ve recently authorized the use of an online procedure for reactivation,” said Jimenez last Friday.

“Hindi na nila kailangan magpunta kung nandun din lang naman ‘yung kanilang biometrics sa aming record. Sabi ng batas, kailangang may biometrics ka sa sistema.”

Some 4.6 million people have newly registered, according to COMELEC records, exceeding the target set at 4 million. Politicians can start filing their certificates of candidacy in October after the end of the voter registration next month.

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