CEBU, Philippines — Cebu has remained to be the vote-rich province in the country with a voting population of over three million voters based on the latest data released by the Commission on Elections.
Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said the official number is now 3,082,621. The figure includes the registered voters from the highly urbanized cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu.
Cebu City has the highest number of registered voters with 709,608; Mandaue City has 226,091 and 214,117 for Lapu-Lapu City.
In terms of districts, the first legislative district has the highest number of accumulated voters totaling to 431,872. Second district has 161,412 voters; third district has 369,341; fourth district has 323,278; fifth district has 366,162; sixth district has 350,166; and the seventh district has 156,665.
Aside from the new voters who have just turned 18 years old, migrants have contributed in the increase of Cebu’s voting population. Castillano has estimated an increase of 200,000 in the number of voters for the coming elections.
He said that migrants from other provinces who are now working in Cebu have chosen to transfer their voter registration here.
“Kana nga increase is natural ra na siya considering nga ang Cebu gasige gyud og mo-cross or migrants. Gawas sa mga batan-on nga nag-eighteen, daghan sab ang transfer gikan sa gawas or new registrants sa mga nanarbaho diri,” Castillano said.
Castillano said that aside from being a vote-rich province, Cebu also has a history of having “high” voters’ turnout during elections.
To recall, the voters’ turnout in the May 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections was 74.74% of the 2,887,455 registered voters then. During the 2016 national and local elections, the number was even higher at 84.95% of the 2,312,593 voters during that time.
Castillano said this is the reason why national candidates are more often coming to Cebu to campaign. (FREEMAN)