COMELEC PROJECTS NUMBER OF REGISTERED CEBU VOTERS TO HIT 3M AHEAD OF 2019 POLLS

The number of voters in Cebu is projected to increase from 2.8 million who registered for the barangay elections last May to three million in time for the May 2019 midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday. Cebu Provincial Elections Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said that with the ongoing registration of voters, those who are registered in other provinces may transfer to Cebu if they qualify under the law. Meanwhile, a poll official said that resetting the May 2019 midterm election is tantamount to amending the 1987 Constitution and cannot be done by ordinary legislation. Earlier, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez proposed to postpone the May 2019 polls so Congress can focus on amending the Constitution and on the shift to a federal form of government. “Postponing the May 2019 election can only be done within the context of the 1987 Constitution duly ratified by the Filipino people,” said Comelec Election Officer IV Ferdinand Gujilde, who also teaches election laws in the University of San Carlos College of Law. He said the grounds to postpone the elections are force majeure, violence, terrorism and other analogous causes. “Resetting the May 2019 election as transitory to a shift in the form of government, be it federal or otherwise, does not fall under any of the grounds, and it does not even amount to the analogous causes,” Gujilde said.