New voter registration
VARIOUS quarters said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) wouild do well to conduct a new general registration of the country’s voters.
Note that the last general registration of voters in the country was held way back in 2003, when the Philippine population totaled only 82.9 million.
Today, the population is estimated at 117.3 million. In fact, the Philippines now ranks as the Number 13 in the list of countries by population.
The poll body has been pushing for a general registration of voters nationwide in time for the next national and local elections.
The nation goes to the polls anew on May 12, 2025 to elect 12 new senators, more than 300 district and party-list congressmen, and thousands of local government officials.
“In the event that we will be allowed to conduct general registration of voters… we will utilize the register anywhere program,” said Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia.
Records show that the Comelec pilot-tested the program in select shopping malls and government agencies from Dec. 12, 2022 to Jan. 31, 2023.
Last July, Garcia, an election lawyer, called for the annulment of the country’s current list of registered voters to ensure the accuracy of said list.
At present, there are 67.8 million registered voters 18 years old and above.
The holding of a new general registration of voters must be considered quickly as proposed by the Commission on Elections.
