BONTOC, Mountain Province – The Provincial election Office is calling on residents who are qualified to vote in the upcoming October 23, 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to avail of the remaining few days to register in the areas where they want to cast their votes.
Provincial election Supervisor lawyer Ricardo Lampac said that qualified voters should not wait for the last few days before rushing to the nearest municipal election office to register because it might already be too late for them due to the presence of long queues of people wanting to register in the areas where they intend to cast their votes.
He admitted that based on reports from the different municipal election offices in the province, the turnout of registrants is still low although there has been an increase in the number of qualified Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) voters who are now availing of the remaining days to register.
Lampac underscored that it pays to be early in terms of the registration period because qualified voters will surely be spared from wasting their time falling in line in the different election offices just for them to avail of the last minute for them to be considered as registered voters.
According to him, people should not blame the Comelec if they are not able to register for the upcoming barangay and SK polls because the poll body gave the qualified voters sufficient time to register and that the same should serve as a lesson to them to make sure that when the registration period will resume after the October polls, they will already register in preparation for the May 2025 midterm elections.
The provincial election supervisor raised doubts on being able to register more than 3,000 new voters for the upcoming barangay elections although the target of approximately 5,000 new SK voters will be achieved.
During the May 9, 2022 synchronized national and local elections, there were more than 117,000 registered voters from the different voting centers provincewide.
Lampac revealed that appropriate information education campaign had already been conducted in the different municipalities where qualified voters were encouraged to avail of the ongoing registration of new voters that will run from December 12, 2022 to January 31, 2023 that is why the poll body should not be blamed if there will be qualified voters who are not able to register.
He asserted that there are already 10 days that are remaining for qualified voters from the different parts of the province to register in the areas where they will cast their votes that is why people should already prioritize their being registered voters to allow them to actively participate in the upcoming barangay and SK elections.
Aside from the registration of new voters, other activities that are allowed by the poll body include the transfer of registration, the reactivation of the status of voters among other related transactions by the voters.
He assured the interested registrants that the various Comelec offices are open daily from Mondays to Saturdays to cater to their needs during the prescribed registration period for them to be able to exercise their right of suffrage during the October barangay and SK polls.
