MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expecting an influx of applicants for voter registration in its local offices nationwide as registration ends on Monday.
In a statement, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said those eligible to vote but are not registered yet have only two days – today and Monday – left to file their applications.
“Today is the last Saturday for voter registration while the last day is on Monday, so an influx of registrants is to be expected. The Comelec has anticipated this and we are confident that our employees in the field are prepared to handle the last-day registration scenario,” he noted.
He added that the poll body has already issued the guidelines on how its election officers should handle late registrants.
Section 6 of Comelec Resolution No. 10549 provides that if there are still applicants lined up to register within a 30-meter radius from the office of election officers by 3 p.m. of Sept. 30, their names will be promptly and consecutively listed down.
Each name in the list will then be announced repeatedly three times in the order the names were listed.
The Comelec said applicants who are not present when their names are called will no longer be allowed to file their application.
“When an applicant’s name is called and he/she is present, his/her application will be processed and his/her biometrics data will be captured. The process continues until all those listed shall have been processed,” it added.
An express lane is provided for persons with disabilities, senior citizens and pregnant applicants.
As of Sept. 21, the number of applications processed nationwide stands at 2,645,446. The registration period started last Aug. 1.