- MITCH M. LIPA
The Commission on Elections in Negros Occidental noted a 31 percent decline in its ongoing listing, prompting the local COMELEC to mount a massive campaign to encourage voters to register for the 2022 presidential elections.
Provincial Election Supervisor Ma. Fatima Aspan said they will launch an information campaign to invite Negrenses to register for the May 2022 polls.
Aspan said the total registration for the province, including Bacolod City, as of Jan. 18, 2021 reached only 1,752,232, which is 31 percent lower from 1,889,200 registered voters versus the 2019 national elections.
She pointed out the low number of registration of new voters aged 18 years old and the slow reactivation of voters for those who were delisted after the 2019 elections.
Aspan said around 136,000 voters in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City were delisted due to their failure to vote for two successive elections.
Some already died and others appear as “double entries,” she said.
Data given by Aspan showed that since the opening of registration on Sept. 1, 2020 up to Jan. 18, 2021, only 15,135 have registered to include 18-year- olds, and those who applied for reactivation as well as those who transferred residency.
Bacolod City only has 1,122 new registrants since last year, she said.
Bacolod City has a total of 286,383 voters as of Jan. 2021 down from 312,816 voters in 2019.
Aspan added they are doubling their efforts to encourage people to come to the Comelec offices and not wait for the last-minute registration schedule.
She said they are waiting for the order from the Central Office regarding the extension of registration days up to Saturdays.
Satellite registration may also be possible if COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in the country and the vaccination roll-out for major cities has already started, she added.
Aspan said her office aims to reach up to 70 percent registration in order to level the 2019 records.
Negros Occidental has the most number of registered voters among six provinces in Region 6. It has 19 municipalities and 13 cities including Bacolod, with a total of 662 barangays.
Negros Occidental has 11,895 established precincts and 5,240 clustered precincts.
Aspan was formerly the election officer of Victorias City. She replaced lawyer Jessie Suarez after his retirement on November 2020. – MML
