With less than 50 days before the deadline of voter registration, we call on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to extend the deadline beyond September 30, 2021.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that the estimated voting population for 2022 is 73.3 million, but with the COMELEC reporting 60 million registered voters as of June, this means over 13.3 million eligible voters are still unregistered.

While COMELEC initially set the registration period from January 20, 2020 until September 30, 2021 for the May 9, 2022 National and Local Elections, COMELEC has suspended voter registration due to COVID-19.

At the start of the pandemic, COMELEC suspended voter registration from March 9 to August 31, 2020. COMELEC then suspended voter registration in areas under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

In 2021, voter registration has already been suspended twice in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus and other highly urbanized areas.

This means that we lost approximately 28.3% of days dedicated to voter registration because of suspensions due to COVID, while areas such as Metro Manila lost 38.6% of the registration period.

Under Republic Act No. 8189 or the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, COMELEC is allowed to extend the registration period as long as “no voter's registration must be conducted in a 120 day-period before a regular election and a 90-day period before a special election.”

Historical data also show that COMELEC has set voter registration deadlines beyond September 30. During the 2004 National and Local Elections, registration of voters in Iligan City/Cotabato City/Zamboanga City and NCR was until October 31, 2003, and was until November 9, 2003 in other areas.

As voter registration has been suspended multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is reasonable to extend the voter registration beyond September 30 while we are under a state of public health emergency.