Comelec sees 800K New Voters for 2018 Barangay, SK Polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is optimistic of meeting the voter registration target of over 800,000 new regular and youth voters which ended on Thursday.

According to Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez, they are on track in meeting the estimated 500,000 regular and 350,000 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) applicants.

“I think we’re on track to meet those expectations,” he said in a statement.

Latest figure from the Election and Barangay Affairs Department (EBAD) showed that they have received a total of 496,816 applications for registration for a period of three weeks from November 6 to 25.

Jimenez said that the figures for the last week of the registration are not yet available.

With this, the poll body official reported that after the voter registration has ended, the Election Registration Board (ERB) would review the applications and they would also be the ones who would approve or disapprove.

“The ERB will take approximately two weeks to process the applications. It will then send out notifications of disapprovals. Approvals will be posted at the Offices of the Election Officers,” he explained.

“This will be followed by the period for the filing of petitions for inclusion (if someone feels that he/she was mistakenly disapproved) or exclusion (if someone feels some people were mistakenly approved). That will then be followed by the preparation of the project of precincts,” Jimenez furthered.

The resumption of registration for the May 2018 Barangay and SK polls, resumed last November 6.

Applicants age 15 to 17 years are allowed to register as voters for the SK elections, while those who are 18 years old and above are preferred to register as regular voters. (PNA)