MANILA, July 29 (PNA) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has reported a low number of registrants in the first two months of the 17-month long voter’s registration nationwide.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the number of registrants since they started last May is not encouraging as they are looking to register over nine million voters, including those who have no biometrics.
“The number of registrants since May up to present is not that good,” he said.
The poll body chief reported that some 500,000 voters registered nationwide in the first two months of registration.
“The 17-month registration, divide it with nine million, that should be the average, about 400,000 a month, ideally. For two months, I think it’s only 500,000,” Brillantes said.According to Comelec, there are about 9.3 million registered voters that have no biometrics data.
The poll body warned that failure to have themselves registered will automatically deactivate them from the voters’ list and will not be allowed to vote under the Mandatory Biometrics Registration Act of 2013.
Brillantes said they are in the process of evaluating their voters’ registration program to determine the reason for the low number of registrants and also planning to come up with a new campaign to encourage the public to register. (PNA)