Comelec surpasses voter registration target

DESPITE the repeated suspension of voter registration activities due to community restrictions, more than 5.7 million have registered as voters with the Commission on Elections ( Com el ec) .

In a social media post, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said there were "5,727,223 new registrants” as of Friday, August 13, 2021.

The number surpassed Comelec projections of at least four million new registered voters for the May 2022 national and local elect i ons.

Voter registration activities are suspended in areas placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

Guanzon said more voters may be able to vote in the next elections once deactivated voters are able to reactivate their registration records.

"If only 50 percent of deactivated voters of 6.3 million will be reactivated, we can hit 8,877,233 voters," she sai d.

Earlier, Guanzon said the commission en banc has allowed the reactivation of voters, who failed to vote in two consecutive elections, through email.

However, only those with biometrics data enrolled with Comelec may be able to reactivate via em ai l .

"The law states that you need to have biometrics data in the system. So if you don't have your biometrics in the system, you need to have them taken, which is only possible if you appear in person," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez in a virtual press briefing on Friday.

"But if you are deactivated, regardless of how many elections you missed, if they have biometrics record in the system, this facility will be available to them," he added.

Biometrics data refer to the digital records of the applicant's image, fingerprints and signatures.