Deactivated voters exceed 5 million – Comelec

MANILA, Philippines — Over five million voters nationwide are now out of the Commission on Elections (Comelec)’s official list of voters and may no longer be able to participate in next year’s midterm polls.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia yesterday reported that the poll body has deactivated a total of 5,105,191 registered voters.

Aside from those deactivated, the Comelec also deleted a total of 248,972 people from the official list of voters, Garcia said.

“Others who have been deleted are because of death as well as multiple and double registration,” he said.

The Comelec previously reported that most of the deactivated voters failed to vote in the last two elections.

Others reasons for deactivation are loss of Filipino citizenship and court decisions.

Garcia also reported that since the start of registration until July 20, the Comelec had received 409,329 applications for reactivation. The figure includes transfer for reactivation, transfer with reactivation, and correction of data.

Those who had been deactivated will be deducted from the current total number of voters, according to Garcia.

Deactivated voters, however, may still submit an application for reactivation during the ongoing voter registration.