Comelec's mobile registration draws more new voters
Thousands of new voters in Iloilo City have availed of the mobile registration being conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the city's six districts.
Acting city election officer G. Bert Arbis said turnout has been high since the Comelec started setting up satellite registration offices since January 5.
The Comelec has already conducted registration for new voters for next year's elections in the districts of Jaro and Mandurriao.
New voter registrants are being processed in Molo district until April 7. The mobile registration office will move to Arevalo district from April 13 to 25, La Paz (April 27-May 16) and Lapuz (May 8-27).
Arbis said the mobile registration aims to prevent the deluge of new registrants at the Comelec office especially near the last day of registration on October 31.
“We encourage new voters to register where it would be convenient to them and to avoid the rush near the deadline,” said Arbis in an interview on Wednesday.
The satellite registration office is equipped with two imaging machines each capable of processing 200 applicants daily. The machines capture the digital image and fingerprints of he of the registrant.
Arbis said they expect to processed the application of around 7,000 new voters by the end of March.
The figure is still below the expected number of registrants estimated to reach 10 percent of the present 245,000 voters of the city. But the applications are expected to significantly increase later this year.