Voters’ registration ends 5PM tomorrow, Jan. 31

The Commission on Elections in the province is expecting to reach 50,000 new voters as the voters’ registration ends by 5 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, January 31.

Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria, Negros Occidental Provincial Commission on Elections (COMELEC) supervisor said today that last week voter registration in the province went down by about 400.

He said that at the national level voter registration has already reached 1.5 million.

At the provincial level, Ananoria said, “if we reach 50,000 it’s good enough.”

Ananoria said that as of January 30 there are 47, 287 voter applicants.

Of the total number, there are 11,640 categorized as Sangguniang Kabataan or those aged 15 – 17 years old, he said.

This is a product of our satellite registration in schools and our campaign for the students to register as voters for the SK election set in October, this year, he said.

Ananoria attributed the “leveling off” of the registration to the fact that almost everyone who is interested to register seems to have registered already.

“We are preparing for the last day of registration tomorrow, January 31. In Bacolod City alone about 12,000 have registered. In some towns registration is high, while others have slowed down,” he pointed out.

There is no official advise yet from the national office if there will be an extension of voters’ registration that ends at 5 p.m. tomorrow. Only those within 30 meters of the vicinity of the registration area will be accommodated, Ananoria said.

He also appealed to those who are interested to participate in the barangay and SK elections as voters to register.

As of Week 7 of voters’ registration, COMELEC data showed that there are 11, 486 voter registrants, while the lone district of Bacolod City has 2,164.

The capital city has a total of 12, 482 after seven weeks of registration.

San Carlos City continues to top all local government units in Negros Occidental with 589 new voters in Week 7 or a total of 3, 073.

Candoni recorded the lowest registration on Week 7 with only 56 registrants.

Overall the town of San Enrique logged 306 new voters during the seven-week period.* (EYA)