Comelec: Over 5.4M voter applications after 7-month registration drive

MANILA, Philippines — Over 5.4 million new voter applications have been processed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) after seven months of holding registration drives nationwide, the poll body said on Tuesday.

Data provided by Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia and Election and Barangay Affairs Department Director IV Atty. Divina Blas-Perez on Tuesday showed a total of 5,470,889 applications nationwide. 

The Comelec’s voters’ registration for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) ran from October 20, 2025 to May 18, 2026.

READ: Early voter registration cutoffs spark complaints

Of this figure, the poll body received more registrations from females, with 2,831,459, compared to males’ 2,639,430. 

Region IV-A also logged the highest number of registrations with 887,677, followed by the National Capital Region with 598,427, and Region III with 613,185. 

The Comelec noted that the applications composed of new registrations, reactivations, and transfer of registrations. The poll body added that the biggest number of registrations came from new registrants of the upcoming BSKE.

The BSKE will be held on November 2, 2026, after being postponed from its schedule of December 1, 2025.

Meanwhile, the last day of the voters’ registration was met with complaints from interested registrants who were reportedly cut off from their lines. Many of them complained of lining up for the registration and still not being accommodated as some Comelec offices stopped accepting registrations before the official closing time. 

In response, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that due to the overwhelming number of interested applicants on the last day, the election officers had to implement the “Last Day Scenario” provision under the Section 6 of the Comelec Resolution No. 11177. He said that this “directed them to determine the maximum number of applicants they could process and accommodate.”

He noted that as each district office processes around 1,200 to 2,000 applications daily, election personnel would determine how many applicants they could still process before midnight once they reach their expected capacity.

He also said that many Comelec offices in Metro Manila reached their capacity as early in the morning, which forced them to stop accommodating more applicants as early as noon. 

He then shared that the voters’ registration will resume in 2027, just in time for the 2028 national and local elections. /mr