Comelec: New registrants hit 5 million ahead of 2022 polls

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29) — The Commission on Elections has recorded over five million new registrants out of the 63 million Filipinos eligible to vote in the 2022 elections.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Wednesday, Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas said the poll body has already processed 63,364,932 registered voters as of September 11. It first surpassed its 59 million target last month with 2 million more eligible voters logged.

Abas noted that apart from the five million new voters, some 871,000 reactivated their data, while 3.2 million applied for the transfer of their voter records.

"Mataas na ito. Hopefully madadagdagan pa ito in the coming days [These are already big numbers. Hopefully, this would still increase in the coming days]," Abas said.

Abas acknowledged that the current number of eligible voters is still around 10 million short of the 73 million voting population projected by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

"Tinanong ko ito sa aming project management office kung bakit meron talagang di nagpaparehistro. Ang sagot nila sa akin, merong around 10 million na hindi talaga nagpaparehistro simula’t simula pa," he said.

[Translation: I asked our project management office why some people refuse to register. They said around 10 million have not really registered ever since.]

The Comelec has extended the voter registration period until Oct. 30, with a break to allow its offices to accommodate the filing of certificates of candidacy from Oct. 1 to 8.