DAVAO CITY, Sept. 29 (PIA) – Despite having reached the target 4-million new voters last June 2021 as set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the Davao City Comelec continues to remind qualified voters to register in order to exercise their electoral right.
Guesting in the One Davao Virtual Presser, Atty. Mohammad Fyzee Alim of Comelec Davao First District that first time voters to go to the nearest Comelec office and bring any of the acceptable identification cards to be counted and be able to vote on the National Elections next year.
Initially, the Comelec set September 30 as the last day of registration. In an update posted by Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, he announced that the Comelec en banc has unanimously approved the extension of voter’s registration.
This was confirmed in another post of Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon citing that voter registration extension is from October 11 to October 30, no Saturday schedule except October 30 which will cater to registrants up to 5PM.
The Comelec Davao has so far recorded 937,000 new registered voters since 2019 up to the present month while the entire Davao Region catered to 3.4 million newly registered voters.
“ Marami ang pumipila (There were many who lined up) as early as 2 a.m. nanjan na sila naghihintay para ma-accommodate. We can only cater to 300 individuals for registration per day. Unfortunately, those who came in late will have to go back the next day,” Atty. Alim said.
The Comelec opens for registration every Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the Comelec still expects a high turn-out of voters in the coming national elections.
“Traditionally, Filipinos are very active in voting. The usual average of voters’ turn-out is at 85 percent. Given this pandemic, there might be a little reduction of the turn-out but we are still expecting around 80 percent. We only expect those that who have contracted the virus will be the ones who cannot go out and vote. The rest will probably exercise their voting right,” Atty Alim added.
He also added that the Commission en banc has yet to release the election guideline that would provide the specific mechanisms and strategies. Meanwhile, the discussion for the guideline includes the possibility of doing the strategies done in other countries.
One strategy that Atty. Alim mentioned is the expansion of mailing voting which allows for the ballot to be sent to the barangay and the voters will just have to drop their filled out ballots at the post office.
Another procedure that is being considered is early voting and the staggering of voting hours.
“For now, what we are busy doing is we are separating the voters who are senior citizens, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Persons at Risk. We will provide a separate voting area for them to ensure that they will be protected from contracting the virus since they are at risk,” the official said. (PIA XI/Frances Mae Macapagat)
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