Comelec Cebu City records 40.7K new voters

New registrants and transferees crowded a mall in Cebu City during the September 30 registration deadline.| CDND File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Comelec offices in Cebu City’s north and south districts registered at least 40,767 new voters in the last three months.

These consist of voters who will be casting their votes for the first time and transferees who had their registration transferred to Cebu City.

But Lawyer Marchel Sarno of the Comelec North District Office said that new registrants will have to undergo approval by the Comelec Election Board, a process that will take at least two weeks to complete, before they will be included in the city’s official list of voters.

The board will especially look into the registrants residency and/or the reason for the transfer of his/her registration.

If their application for registration is approved, the number of registered voters in Cebu City will already be increased to around 740, 000 voters.

“The approval process is simple. The Electoral Board will only need the time for objections to be made. Without objections, the voter will be approved,” said Sarno.

Read More: 1K voters in Cebu City try to beat Comelec registration deadline

Registration of voters started on August 1 and was concluded on September 30.

Sarno said that 23, 664 new registrants came from the city’s south district while the remaining 17, 103 came from the north district.

Meanwhile, Sarno said they are looking into the possibility of holding more offsite registrations especially in far flung barangays the next time that the Comelec head office would scheduled another registration.

He said that the availability of space was the biggest problem that they encountered during their recent registration which ended on September 30.

“Our biggest problem is the space. We have a small space and it cannot fit a lot of registrants at once,” said Sarno. / dcb