According to the Commission on Elections, an additional 4.3 million new voters have registered for the upcoming May 2022 National and Local Elections (Comelec).
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez happily said that it has already surpassed their target number of only four million.
“Thus far, we have around 4.3 million new voters who have already registered, which means we have already exceeded our expectations we set out with back in 2019,” said Jimenez.
This means that there will be an increase of more than four million voters who will be 18-years-old to vote for the first time in 2022.
Currently, the total number of registered voters in the country is around 60 million.
“Of course, voter turnout will be lower than that, but that is the standing number for registered voters,” said Jimenez.
The Comelec continues to call on new voters to still register before the voter registration deadline on September 30.
Meanwhile, Comelec and the Philippine National Police (PNP) warned of possible rampant vote-buying using new technology.
4.3 million new voters registered – Comelec
Jimenez admitted that they have no control over the issue of sending money using such e-money transfers.
He believes that the only thing they can do is contact the companies that offer e-money transfer services, iron out what can be done, and prevent politicians from using it in vote-buying.
Recently, PNP Chief General Guillermo Eleazar himself said that vote-buying through cashless transactions is possible.
“Hindi po malabong mangyari ito dahil nakagawian na rin po ang cashless transactions, lalo ngayong may pandemya. Talagang maiisip ito ng mga taong nagpa-planong manghikayat sa publiko na ibenta ang kanilang boto,” said Eleazar.
“Monitoring vote-buying activities in the 2022 elections will really be a great challenge to us. But I assure the voting public that we will put in place safeguards against this practice,” he added.
Eleazar will also start working with stakeholders such as the Comelec to place mechanisms against vote-buying using electronic money transfer services.
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