Around 8 million new voters have registered with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the upcoming May 2022 national and local polls.
In a news briefing during the fifth day of the filing of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) last Tuesday, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said they were able to tally 7,994,821 newly registered voters.
This is nearly twice the 4-million target new registrant of the poll body. The figure is expected to further increase with the resumption of the voter registration on October 11, 2021, after the end of the COC filing on Friday.
The voter registration will last until October 30, 2021, and will be open from Mondays to Fridays, 8 am to 5 pm, except on its last day, which will fall on a Saturday.
Comelec extended the voter registration beyond September 30, 2021, upon the appeal of some groups and lawmakers to offset the long period of its suspension due to pandemic lockdowns in previous months.
Image courtesy of Nonie Reyes