Low turnout of applicants continued in the second week of voter registration being done by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Pateros.
Data from the Comelec Pateros office showed that from Feb. 19 to 24, there were only 51 people who signed up for voter registration or an average of just nine people per day.
Two people who registered with Comelec Pateros (Photos from Armando Mallorca's Facebook account)
This is down by 45 percent compared to 93 people who went to the Comelec Pateros office to register in the first week from Feb. 12 to 17.
Of the 51 registrants, 32 are male and 19 are female. By date, nine people registered on Feb. 19, 12 on Feb. 20, 10 on Feb. 21, 14 on Feb. 22, one on Feb. 23 and five on Feb. 24.
Twenty-two people of the total registered as new voters while the rest were processed for transfer from other cities and municipalities, transfer within the same municipality, reactivation of registration and correction of entries.
Comelec is conducting the voter registration, which will run until Sept. 30 this year, for the May 12, 2025 national and local elections.
Pateros Election Officer Armando Mallorca lamented last week the low turnout of people for voter registration in the municipality.
“Nakakalungkot kahit anong voter education mo walang pumapansin kahit mga Barangay official deadma. Sayang ang effort (It is saddening that no matter what voter education you do, no one notices even barangay officials deadma [they are ignoring]. The effort is wasted),” Mallorca posted on Facebook.
Pateros has 39,094 registered voters as of last year. It is the smallest local government unit in the National Capital Region (NCR) with a population of 65,227 based on the 2020 Census conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).