BEATING THE DEADLINE. People flock to the registration center at Robinsons Place Iloilo during the last day of voter registration on Tuesday (Jan. 31, 2023). Election Officer II Jonathan Sayno said they have achieved their target number of registrants ahead of the deadline. (PNA photo by PGLena)
ILOILO CITY – Voters here have shown their interest to take part in the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in October this year as manifested by the high turnout of registrants since last December 12.
Election Officer II Jonathan Sayno, in an interview on Tuesday, the last day of registration, said they reached their target registrants of around 5,000 to 6,000, with around 60 percent belonging to the SK age group of 15 to 30 years old.
He said they expect a lower number of registrants for regular voters since they have already registered in the past presidential elections.
Sayno said they have observed that people flock to the registration center during the last remaining days.
“We always expect this. The turnout at the start of the registration was very low; now we almost reached 500 a day unlike before when we could hardly reach 50 a day,” he added.
On Jan. 25, they registered around 300 registrants which increased to 610 the following day. On Jan. 30, the registrants reached 868.
Sayno said they also conducted satellite registrations in malls and selected barangays to reach out to registrants.
The applicants will have to undergo Election Registration Board screening composed of the Comelec Election Supervisor and representatives from the Department of Education and the City Local Civil Registrar starting Feb. 13.
In the May 2022 elections, the city had 430,467 registered voters. (PNA)
