In observance of the Holy Week, the Philippine News Agency’s online news service will be off on March 29, Good Friday, and March 30, Black Saturday. Normal operations will resume on March 31, Easter Sunday.

— The Editors

Youth comprises majority of 1.6M new voters: Comelec

By Ferdinand Patinio

January 31, 2023, 3:39 pm

MANILA – The majority of those who applied as new voters are youth aged 15 to 30 years old, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said during the registration period deadline on Tuesday.

“More or less 1.5 to 1.6 million those applied for registration as of today, that is over our target. Because of that, the registration will no longer be extended. Of the 1.6 million, more than half are young people who have registered. That means young people listened to our call to register,” said Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia in an interview during his visit to the satellite registration hub at the SM City Manila.

He noted that the participation of more young Filipinos in the electoral process is a very welcome development.

“It’s a very good sign for our country. The young ones are making their presence felt wanting to control the destiny of the Filipino race. Now our future is secured,” he added.

Garcia said that after the registration period, the Election Registration Board (ERB) in different parts of the country will scrutinize and approve the applications.

“If the ERB's approval of the additional voters is completed, because we already started printing 91 million ballots, and we estimate that the printing will be finished by the second week of February. If the ERBs are finished and the 1.5 to 1.6 million applicants are approved, we will add more ballots and we may finish printing (by) first week of March,” Garcia said, adding that voter registration period resumed on Dec. 12, 2022.

Aside from applications as new voters, the poll body is also accepting applications for reactivation, transfer of registration, correction of entries among others. (PNA)

Comments