Comelec exceeds their targeted 2022 voters; extends registration

AHEAD OF THE DEADLINE. The commission on election has registered 5.57 Million new voters for the upcoming May 2022 elections ahead of the September 30 deadline. ©Santos

According to the Commission on Elections Chairman Sheriff Abas, there are already 63 million registered voters for the 2022 National elections and this number is over the 59 million voters they have set for the said elections as of Sept. 11, 2021.

“As of September 11, we already processed 63,364,932 registered voters," Abas told CNN Philippines on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Additionally, Abas mentioned that new registrations are around 5 million, 871,000 reactivated their data, and 3.2 million applied for transfer of voter data.

However, the figure from the Comelec is still 10 million short of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s projected voting population, which is at 73.3 million.

Comelec argued that even in the past elections, it was unsuccessful in reaching the PSA’s projected voting population.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon stressed that he was unimpressed by the Comelec's efforts to meet its numbers.

"I don't buy the argument that you have exceeded your target, because in the first place, you set your own target," Drilon said on Sept. 24.

"You could have made your target [just] one million."

Reaching the goal

The voter registration, which was supposed to end on Sept. 30, was extended from Oct. 9–31 after lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate granted their request for an extension.

"Extension is from October 11 to 30; Monday to Friday, no Saturdays, except for the last day (October 30), 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. All registration services offered," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said.

The Comelec also announced that they would not accommodate voter applicants from Oct. 1–8 so that election personnel could concentrate their energies on the filing of certificates of candidacy for national government positions.