Comelec should extend voter registration until end October photo Rappler
COMELEC

Comelec should extend voter registration until end October

Sep 1, 2021, 8:29 AM
Rose De La Cruz

Rose De La Cruz

Writer/Columnist

It makes a lot of sense to extend the deadline of voters’ registration considering that eight months have been lost to hard lockdowns and all Comelec offices, without notice to the public, were not accessible to the public (especially to walk-ins) during the GCQ, MECQ in the National Capital Region, for disinfection. Even if there would be a ‘domino effect’ on other activities, the Comelec must heed the call for extension or else it should expect low voter turnout for the 2022 national elections.

WITH eight months lost to hard lockdowns and with Commission on Election offices being shut down-- without notice to the public for disinfection from coronavirus for much of the time during the general community quarantine-- it makes much sense for Comelec to extend the deadline by at least a month, or until October 31 this year.

Short of that, we must expect a low voters’ turnout on two fronts: 1) less registrants from the youth voters (or those voting for the first time and even from those that have been missing their right to suffrage for reasons only they know) and 2) because the delta variant (and perhaps a newer Mu variant being watched by the World Health Organization) will force people to stay home than risk death or infection.

I agree with those calling for extension because so much time has been lost to quarantine restrictions, which this administration (with its lack of proactive measures and strategies to deal with Covid-19) continued to impose to lock people in their homes instead of providing the healthcare system with the capacity to cope with the virulent virus.

As it is, the Comelec said it would allow the conduct of registration in areas under modified community quarantine (MECQ)—a quarantine restriction that NCR plus bubble had been placed in for so many months—beginning Monday (September 6) or two weeks before the September 30 registration deadline.

It should have regulated this at the time NCR plus bubble was under MECQ so that more voters could have registered.

Comelec En Banc just now approves conduct of registration, from 8 am to 5 pm, in areas under MECQ, starting September 6, 2021. In-mall voter registration will be allowed," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said in a statement on Wednesday, September 1.

The Comelec made the decision following appeals from groups, including former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, for the poll body to resume voter registration in areas under MECQ, the second strictest form of lockdown under the Duterte administration.

The move also came after Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said earlier on Wednesday that the poll body cannot extend the September 30 registration deadline.

Groups trooped to the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila on Tuesday, August 31, to file a petition urging the poll body to move the deadline by at least a month.

Rappler's report showed nearly eight months of voter registration were lost due to coronavirus-driven hard lockdowns in several areas in the Philippines since 2020.

The Comelec had said that it had to stick with its original deadline, as moving it would cause a domino effect on their other activities in the run-up to the 2022 elections.

Some 61 million Filipinos are already eligible to cast their ballots in the 2022 elections, the first national polls to be conducted in the Philippines against the backdrop of a pandemic. The Palawan plebiscite, held in March, offered a glimpse of polls held during a pandemic, Rappler reported.

Tags: #CommissiononElections, #2022elections, #voterregistration


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