By John Noel E. Herrera
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Western Visayas has logged 263,299 new registered voters for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections on December 05, 2022.
The new voters include 182,302 SK voters who are in the 15-to 17-year-old bracket.
The remaining 80,979 newly registered voters were 18 years old and older, who are also eligible for the barangay polls.
Based on the data from COMELEC-6, the breakdown of numbers of newly registered voters from July 04 to July 23, 2022 in the region is:
Aklan – 23,062
Antique – 23,355
Capiz – 34,679
Guimaras – 28,175
Iloilo Province – 82,322
Negros Occidental – 92,410
COMELEC Regional Director Dennis Ausan also said that most of the newly registered voters in the province are first-time voters.
Republic Act No. 10742 or the SK Reform Act of 2015 mandates that SK voters shall be aged 15 to 30 years old, while those who are eligible to apply for candidacy are between 18 to 24 years old.
The number of registered voters for the May 09, 2022 elections in the region also reached 5,026,482 which is 217,643 more compared to 4,808,839 voters during the 2019 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental 4th District Representative Juliet Marie Ferrer filed House Bill 121 seeking the postponement of the December 2022 barangay and SK elections, and positive that it would be approved by the House of Representatives.
She also explained that instead of spending for another electoral exercise, the government can direct its resources to COVID-19 pandemic-related programs and help in rebuilding the economy.
