2.9 million register to vote in SK, barangay elections

MANILA, Philippines — At least 2.9 million Filipinos have registered to vote in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections as the voter registration period ended on July 23, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported yesterday.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said data released by the poll body’s election and barangay affairs department (EBAD) showed that 2.94 million people registered from July 4 to 23.

A majority of the registrants belonged to the 15 to 17 age bracket with 1.81 million, Laudiangco said.

More than 963,400 registrants were 18 to 30 years old while 158,654 were ages 31 and above.

The Comelec described the number of new registrants as record breaking, noting it took place amid a pandemic.

The figure surpassed the Comelec’s initial target of over one million for new regular and youth voters.

The poll body said the high turnout of registrants surpassed its recalibrated target of 2.08 million.

Data from the Comelec-EBAD also showed 522,962 applications for transfer of voting place from other cities or municipalities.

Applications for transfer within the same city or municipality were at 147,207.

The number of those who applied for transfer with reactivation of voter status reached 20,643.

More than 7,000 applied for transfer with reactivation and correction of entries, and 25,683 for transfer with correction of entries.

The Comelec also received 128,623 applications for reactivation, 29,142 for reactivation with correction of entries, 74,146 for change of names or correction of entries, 180 for inclusion in the book of voters, 45 for reinstatement of names in the list of voters, and 7,487 applications for transfer from overseas to local voting.

As of Saturday, the Comelec said it was able to process 3.9 milion applications of different types.