Cebu Voters Sans Biometrics Whittled Down to 5%

(PNA) — The number of voters in Cebu who still don’t have biometrics data has been whittled down to some five percent of the province’s 2.6 million registered voters, an election official said.

Lawyer Ferdinand Gujilde of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) 7 said this meant there were still 111,737 registered voters living in Cebu City and Cebu Province who did not have biometrics data.

Gujilde said they set a target of five percent and they had achieved it by August.

He said Mandaue City had the most number of registered voters without biometrics data at around 21,950 out of 164,108, followed by Cebu City’s north district with 12,728 out of 265,686 registered voters and Toledo City with 10,586 out of its 96,698 registered voters.

He urged voters, who still don’t have biometrics, to immediately approach the nearest polling center and have themselves registered.

He urged unregistered voters to take advantage of the ongoing satellite registrations held in malls across Cebu.

In Mandaue City, satellite registrations will be held at the Pacific Mall on Sept. 18 to 25, Gaisano Grand Mall in Barangay Centro on Sept. 19 and Gaisano Capitol in Barangay Casuntingan on Sept. 26.

In Talisay City, there will also be satellite registration at the Gaisano Grand Fiesta Mall on Sept. 18, 19, 25 and 26 and at the Gaisano Grand Mall in Toledo City on Sept. 19.

Gujilde said the last day of registration and for registered voters to have their biometrics data taken would be on Oct. 31.

But the Comelec will temporarily close off the registration process from Oct. 12 to 16 to give way for the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC). (PNA) RMA/EB/EDS