Comelec expects more youth to register next month

MANILA, Philippines - With the coming summer break, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) sees more youth registering for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this October.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez projected an increase in the number of registrants as many students start returning to their provinces after many schools wrap the academic year.

“There might be a bump in the provinces since there are those who will be going home this summer. So, we might see an increase in the provinces,” he said yesterday.

Comelec is conducting voter registration nationwide from November 2016 until April 29.

However, Jimenez also expressed fear that President Duterte’s call to postpone the coming polls may negatively impact the ongoing localized registration, discouraging the youth from registering as they would not be sure if an election will actually be held. This attitude, he added, might result in a drop in the number of projected new registrants.

The poll body expects about five million new voters for the upcoming elections but has received only a little more than two million applications. For Jimenez, this rate is rather low.

Earlier, the President expressed his desire to call for a postponement, the second time since last year, fearing that drug money may influence the results of the barangay and youth polls. He also talked about appointing barangay officers in lieu of allowing people to elect them – something which Congress said needs a revision of the law.