The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has deactivated the registration of 7 million voters for failure to vote in two consecutive elections, among others.

"7M voters were deactivated due to, among other reasons, failure to vote in two consecutive elections," Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said in her Twitter account.

Deactivated voters, however, may still apply for reactivation in order to participate in the May 2022 national and local polls.

"The two consecutive elections prior to the 2022 elections are 2018 and 2019 elections. If you were unable to vote in these two, you are deactivated. You only need to apply for reactivation. No need to register again," the Comelec said.

Based on the Voter's Registration Act of 1996, among the grounds for deactivation of registration are: being sentenced by final judgment to suffer imprisonment for not less than one year; adjudged by final judgment of committing crime involving disloyalty to the government, such as rebellion, sedition, violation of the anti-subversion, and firearms laws, or any crime against national security; being declared by competent authority to be insane or incompetent.

Those who did not vote in the two successive preceding regular elections; any person whose registration has been ordered excluded by the Court; and any person who has lost his Filipino citizenship will also be deactivated while registration records of those who have died as certified by the Local Civil Registrar shall be cancelled.

According to Guanzon, some 700,000 of the deactivated voters have already applied for reactivation.

There were 61.8 million registered voters in the May 2019 midterm elections.