The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is confident it will surpass its target of 3 million new voters as applicants for registration have already reached nearly 2 million, with six months to go before the end of voter registration.

Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that as of Monday, April 8, the Comelec has received more than 1.9 million applications for registration, nearly 69 percent of the 3-million target.

Garcia attributed the success of the registration to the Comelec's massive information dissemination campaign and other pro-active measures that made it easier for the public, particularly the youth, who will vote for the first time in the 2025 midterm polls --to register, reactivate registration, or transfer voting places.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia. PHOTO BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

The resumption of the continuing system of registration started on June 12 and will end on Oct. 30, except for the Registration Anywhere Program (RAP), which will end on Aug. 31 to allow the Comelec to send the data gathered in 171 shopping malls nationwide designated RAP centers, to their intended destinations in various cities, municipalities and provinces.

Aside from the RAP, regular registrations are also being done in local Comelec offices and in satellite or off-site registration, which is done in barangay, educational institutions, government offices, and other establishments.

As of April 8, a total of 1,920,887 applications for registration have already been received by the various registration centers and the local Comelec offices across 17 regions.

Region 4A or Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) tops the list of registrants with 350,923, followed by the National Capital Region or Metro Manila with 284,921; Region 3 or Central Luzon, 217,151; Region 7 or Central Visayas, 138,867; Region 11 or Davao Region, 121,024.

Garcia clarified that those who have filled out the registration forms are not automatically registered but only applicants.

"It is the city or municipal Election Registration Board (ERB) that would determine in its meeting that it will approve or disapprove the registered voters," Garcia added.

At the end of every registration, the ERB will conduct a hearing to cleanse the list of registered voters.

In February 2025, or three months before the May 12, 2025 polls, Garcia said, the ERB will conduct its cleansing of voters list, which includes the review of every application of new voters and removal of multiple registrants and those on the list who have already died.

Garcia said the ERB review of the voter list would be done in the presence of representatives of political parties, candidates, stakeholders and interest groups.

A Filipino who is at least 18 years of age on election day on May 12, 2025, a resident of the Philippines for at least one year and in the place wherein he /she proposes to vote for at least six months immediately preceding the 2025 elections, and not otherwise disqualified by law, can register as a voter.

Garcia added that students who are 17 years old now but would turn 18 on or before the May 12, 2025 elections may also register using their student IDs.

Garcia also reminded registrants that employee IDs would no longer be accepted as valid IDs for purposes of registration, saying that only government-issued identification cards and barangay IDs with pictures and signatures would be accepted.