Comelec to resume voters’ registration starting October 20

Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will resume its voters’ registration next Monday, October 20, its chairperson George Erwin Garcia said on Thursday.

The Comelec said that the voters’ registration will run until May 18, 2026.

“‘We will begin our continuing voters’ on October [20, 2025] and this will last until May [2026],” Garcia told reporters in an interview.

“This registration will be applicable in the whole country and in all kinds of registration — reactivation, transfer of registration, new registration, and modification of items in the registration,” Garcia added.

READ: How to register as a voter for the 2025 BSKE

The voters’ registration will be held from Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The following IDs will be accepted:

• PhilSys National ID
• Postal ID card
• Persons With Disabilities ID card
• Student’s ID card or library card
• Senior Citizens’ ID card
• Driver’s license/student permit
• NBI Clearance
• Philippine passport
• SSS, GSIS, PRC, IBP, UMID ID card
• NCIP certification of confirmation
• Other valid government-issued IDs

Garcia also shared that the poll body will also relaunch its Register Anywhere Program (RAP) sites, where voters’ registration in several areas will be conducted outside local Comelec offices.

In line with this, Comelec said that the RAP will kick-off from October 20 to 21, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Mabini Hall in Luneta Park, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila’s University Activity Center, and at the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange.

Those who will visit these RAP sites will be issued voters’ certificates for free. They will just have to bring a valid government-issued ID. The poll body will not accept cedula, barangay-issued ID or certificate, or police clearance.

Meanwhile, Garcia said that residents of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao can’t participate in the upcoming voters’ registration.

“We will resume the registration for the Bangsamoro after the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections,” he noted.

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Garcia explained that this is to avoid confusion for the residents who might think that the voters’ registration will allow them to vote in the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections, which is scheduled to happen no later than March 31, 2026.

“Those who can vote in the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections are those who registered for and voted in the May 2025 midterm elections,” he added.

Last August 13, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the law extending the current three-year term of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials, which effectively postponed the elections originally scheduled on December 1, 2025.

Garcia earlier shared that the poll body received around 2.8 million voters’ registration during the 10-day drive, which began from August 1 to August 10. This exceeded the poll body’s target of registering 1.5 million new applicants. /das