Comelec extends voter registration from Oct. 11-30, 2021

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc on Wednesday voted unanimously to extend the voter registration for the 2022 national and local elections.

“Extension is unanimously approved,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters.

The extension of voter registration will run from October 11 to 30, 2021, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon said on Twitter.

Voter registration extension Oct 11 to oct 30 no saturdays except oct 30 saturday up to 5pm .

Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm .

No saturdays except oct 30 8am to 5pm.

Reactivation still thru email or personal appearance.

— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) September 29, 2021

Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas earlier in the day said the extension would be from October 9 to 31. October 9, however, is a Saturday while 31 is a Sunday.

According to Guanzon, there will be no registrations on Saturdays except for October 30, the last day of voter registration.

Reactivation can still be done through e-mail or personal appearance, she added.

All election offices and registration sites in malls will accommodate the registrants.

Meanwhile, Jimenez said that all registrations services will be offered, including transfer of voter registration and reactivation.

Overseas voter registration is also extended for two weeks, from October 1 to 14.

“Note that for overseas voting, the filing of COCs is not an issue, thus the extension  starts immediately,” Jimenez said.

Guanzon said the en banc came up with the decision “as requested by the Senate.”

“As I have voted a month ago, I voted again today to extend voter registration because of the necessity for it and to ensure access of  all voters to the elections,” she said.

Abas, in an interview on CNN Philippines, said the decision to resume the voter registration after the October 1 to 8 filing of the certificate of candidacy for those running in the 2022 elections was due to projections that the Comelec will be “very busy” in accommodating would-be candidates all over the country.

As of September 11, Abas said there are 63,364,932 registered voters for Eleksyon 2022.

There are 9 million additional voters for the upcoming polls. Of the number, 5 million are new registrants, 3.2 million are transferred voter registrations, and around 871,000 are reactivated registrations.

Last week, a Senate panel deferred the deliberations of Comelec’s proposed budget for 2022 as senators wanted the poll officials to convene the en banc and reconsider its position on the extension of the voter registration period. —KBK, GMA News