Registration for voters ends today

CEBU, Philippines - Today is the last day of voter registration at the Commission on Elections, and the election officer is expecting another long queue of new registrants today.

Comelec-Cebu City North officer Marchel Sarno said if they had a large crowd yesterday, he expects an even larger crowd today and he might have to request for police personnel if need be to help maintain the peace and order.

Sarno said they will not go overtime, but they will accommodate new registrants until all of them shall have registered. The setup for tomorrow is that the Comelec will accommodate all who will show up until 3 p.m., at no limit, Sarno said.

In 2010, the last day of registration was done at 2 a.m., and Sarno said the case may likely be the same today. Sarno’s office can accommodate at least 500 registrations per day. 

He said it is always the same in the past years, where people flock to register only on the last days of registration.

Yesterday, the Comelec office was still entertaining registrants at well past office hours.

Last Monday, Sarno’s office registered 574 new registrants, adding to the 241,000 record as of September 30.  Sarno said for the whole month of October he expects a 5,000 increase in the registered voters.  –(FREEMAN)