MindnanaoToday.com | Increase of voters, beyond target, surprises Comelec
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – “It ‘s not really alarming, but we are surprised!”
Lawyer Renato Magbutay, regional election director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for Northern Mindanao, said this when asked in a forum in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday, July 24, for his take on the surge of voters’ applications in the first congressional district of Cagayan de Oro, particularly in Barangay Carmen.
Magbutay said their Cagayan de Oro First District office has received over 15,000 applications for registration as voters, including about 4,500 who are seeking approval for transfer to Carmen from other barangays in Cagayan de Oro and other places in the region.
He said the 4,500 are subject of oppositions filed before the Comelec Cagayan de Oro 1st District’s Election Registration Board (ERB) that has started since last week issuing summons. The ERB would either approve or disapproved their applications.
He said applicants must show proof of their residence in Carmen, failure to do so would mean they have to return from where they came to cast their votes in the May 12, 2025 midterm elections. Applications for transfer, he said, is normal and not unique to Carmen.
He declined to give possible reasons why thousands want to vote in Carmen.
Magbutay said the expected increase in the number of voters in the region is only five percent from a little over three million registered voters (3,060,485 in 2022) which, in real numbers, is about 153 thousand. Cagayan de Oro (for both first and second districts) had 372,293 registered voters.
“We have received more than 230 thousand applications, so far. We have now surpassed our target,” the Comelec’s regional head told reporters. Though surprising, but not alarming, he added.
The total number of applications includes registration, transfer, change or correction of entries in the registration records, reactivation of registration records, inclusion of records, reinstatement of name in the list of voters, among others, as stipulated under Comelec Resolution No. 10963 issued on January 10, 2024.
Reception of application for registration started from February 12, 2024 to September 30, 2024, except March 28, 29, and 30 (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Black Saturday).
He said there are regions who have more registered voters compared to Northern Mindanao, ranked seventh among 17 regions in the country. Latest available data show Region IV-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon or Calabarzon) with the most voters with 454,313, followed by the National Capital Region, Central Luzon (Region 3), Central Visayas (Region 7), Davao Region (Region 11), and Western Visayas (Region 6). (30)
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