A ROUND a third of the expected 4 million new voters during the 2022 National and Local polls have already registered with the Commission on Elections.
The poll body said it already registered 2.7 million applicants from September 1, 2021 to April 20, 2021.
Most of the registrants came from Calabarzon with 396,529, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) with 295,357, and Central Luzon with 271,869.
This, despite the ongoing suspension in voter registration in the NCR Plus, which includes Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal, since it was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on March 29, 2021.
The suspension was expanded in April 12, 2021 to also cover Abra, Quirino and Santiago City (Isabela).
The suspension of registration in the said areas is expected to last until the end of the month.
Voter registrations in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ (MGCQ) were not affected by the said suspension and continued normally.
However, the number of applicants in these areas was still lower compared to the three regions.
The regions with the least number of newly registered voters are the Cordillera Administrative Region (42,204), Caraga (87,892) and Ilocos Region (136,712).
The deadline for ongoing voter registration is on September 30, 2021.