The Commission on Elections is calling on the youth as well as regular voters to register now with their respective election offices if they are really serious in making their votes count in the Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections in October of next year.
Dumaguete City Election Assistant II Jason Orbeta said the local election office only has an average of 25 registrants a day that include transfer of registration records, reactivation of registration records, change of name, correction of entries or a total of 339 in the month of November.
He said that it is good to register now to avoid inconvenience because the process will be finished in five minutes with less hassle rather than beat the deadline.
It will be recalled that during the extension of the registration from July 15 to July 30 this year, hundreds of new prospective voters for the SK have failed to register and so they asked for an extension.
Now that the registration is continuing, the province-wide registration for November is only 1,923.
The city election office has sent notices to all the barangays in Dumaguete to encourage prospective voters in their barangays to register early.
According to Orbeta, the Comelec is open to requests for an offsite registration; the schedule for the whole morning this coming Saturday is at the barangay hall in Camanjac.
Other barangays are requested to coordinate with the election office for the scheduling of their requests for an offsite registration up to April next year with applicants being asked to just bring copies of birth certificates.
Those who can register are minors who will turn 15 years old on or before October 27, 2017 for the SK elections and 18 years old and above.
So far, the municipality of Sibulan has the highest number of registrants with 257 for the month of November alone.
Election officer Virgilio Quibal said his first target are the high schools through an offsite registration by contacting the principals.
It was first conducted at the Ajong high school, to be followed by an offsite registration in Boloc-boloc and Poblacion Sibulan.
While targeting first the high schools, EO Quibal has also scheduled a meeting with the 15 barangay captains of the municipality to ensure a higher percentage of registration. (PNA/JFP/Juancho Gallarde)
