Voter registration drive pushed

With 16 days left  for voters to register,  the Cebu City Council called on stakeholders to aggressively campaign for voter registration for the 2016 election.

After this Friday, the Commission on Elections will turn its attention to the deadline of filing of candidacies.

In a privilege speech, Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon said schools, churches and barangay officials should help  first-time voter registrants this month.

“However, registration will be suspended from October 12-16 to pave way for the filling of the Certificate of Candidacy, thus leaving only 16 days left for the first time voters to register,” he said.

Councilor Philip Zafra said barangay Tisa, which he heads, conducted an off-site registration in their barangay gym a few weeks ago.

The youth group First Time Voters Network called on the Cebu City Council to encourage new voters to register before the October 31 deadline.

“We can’t afford to have hundreds of young voters  miss out on their right to participate in the national elections,” said Jumjum Ouano, Akbayan Youth Visayas head, in a press statement.

Comelec records show that Cebu City has 565, 150 registered voters, majority of whom belong to the youth sector aged 18 to 30 years old.

Nationwide, a third of the 53 million registered voters or a total of 17 million are the youth sector. Another 3 million are first time voters in next year’s election. /with Cebu Technological University Intern Marc Eric Cosep

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