New voters register at an offsite voters registration center in Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Commission in Election in Cebu City has seen at least a 5 to 10 percent increase in new voters this registration period so far.
The registration began in September 2020 and is expected to end on September 30, 2021.
“Nakakita na siguro ang mga tawo sa importansya sa makabotar ta,” said Omar Sharif Mamalinta, an election officer II in Cebu City.
(People may have realized the importance of voting.)
Mamalinta said that in their rough data, the new voters have increase by at least 5 to 10 percent as compared to the last registration period, although they do not have exact numbers yet.
Roughly, the North District already has at least 320,000 voters while the South District has roughly 400,000 voters including new registrants.
The final data will be released at the end of the registration period on September 30.
The rise in new voters has been attributed to the increased awareness on social media and the availability of online appointments providing convenience for the public to choose their date of registration and not worry about the long lines.
“Moregister na sila online, mofill up nalang sila sa forms and ig abot nila sa registration site igo nalang sila magprocess,” said Mamalinta.
(They register online, they just have to fill up forms and when they arrive at the registration site, they just have to be processed.)
On September 14, 2021 alone, the Comelec district offices served 519 for the North District and 447 in the South District.
The speed of the registration has also been hastened as the Comelec offices began the off-site registrations at malls last September 9, 2021.
READ MORE: Comelec – Cebu City to activate satellite registration centers
With an average of near a thousand per day, and the sites operating from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, Mamalinta expects the city to reach more or less 15,000 voters served by the last day of September.
These are not necessarily new voters because the sites also caters to transfers and reactivations.
Mamalinta encouraged the public to register to vote as this is the one important right that can only be practiced once every three years.
The registration has been brought closer to the public as well, all the more reason to book an appointment and register.
The schedule for their off-site mall registration can be found in the photo below.
As for the voters’ identification cards (IDs) Mamalinta reminds the public that no IDs are being released in deference to the National ID to be released by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
/bmjo
