COMELEC rejects 9 voter-applicants in Naga

By Paulo DS. Papa

NINE of 3,936 applicants who wish to be registered as voters in the city were disapproved by the Comelec’s Election Registration Board (ERB) during series of hearings conducted last March 6-9 this year.

In an interview, Atty. Maico Julia Jr., head of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here said that the hearings were conducted to evaluate applicants who undergone the recent voters registration last December 2022 to January, this year, and to determine the decrease of the existing number of registered voters in a certain area.

Julia said that the 3,936 applicants were composed of 3,553 regular applicants aged 18 years old and above, and 383 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) applicants aged 15 to 17 years old. He added that seven regular applicants and two SK applicants were disapproved by the board due to double registration.

He elaborated that the applicants were already registered as voters of the city who re-applied to be registered so that they can vote for the forthcoming Barangay and SK elections on October 30, 2023.

Julia clarified however that these nine disapproved applicants can vote during the upcoming elections at the voting precincts they are originally registered.

Meanwhile, he said that his office saw a significant decrease in the number of registered voters in the city from 119,119.

He said that the number of registered voters were decreased by 247 who already transferred to other places, by 329 who were confirmed doubled their registration and by 10 who already died.

As of this writing, Naga’s latest number of registered voters has reached to 122,009 waiting for their respective precincts where they can vote during elections.