CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu said Friday, August 28, that walk-ins who would want to register for the 2022 elections were still accepted.
This after Comelec announced and advised registrants that they must fill-up Comelec forms online before proceeding to their designated election offices.
Read: Reminders for Cebu City residents who want to register as voters
“Walk-ins are still accepted considering that not all has access to our social media pages, and the internet,” said Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, Comelec Cebu election officer.
Castillano, however, said that they would give priority to those who had submitted their forms online.
“For walk-in applicants, before they can proceed to have their biometrics recorded inside our offices, we will be handing forms for them to fill up, and advise them to return maybe within the day or the next day,” explained Castillano.
Comelec is set to resume voters registration this September 1, 2020, with applicants told to fill up forms online.
Read: Comelec: Voter registration resumes on September 1, 2020
This was created, said Castillano, as means for election officers around the country to control the number of individuals entering their offices.
He also said they would not be allowing people without face masks, face shields, and their own ballpens inside their offices.
“We have these policies because we don’t want our office to be a venue where the coronavirus spreads, and this is also why we’re asking for understanding from the public,” added Castillano.
Cebu, including the three major cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, is one of the country’s vote-rich provinces.
The Comelec Cebu official said Cebu province alone had at least 2 million voters.
“The figures could go 3.2 million if we’re going to include the voting population from the three large cities,” he said.
Comelec has also trimmed their office hours, and that they will be closing at 3 p.m., which is two hours earlier than their usual schedule.
Deadline for the voters’ registration is in September 2021. /dbs