Voter registration moved from July to October

The Commission on Elections moved the resumption of the nationwide voter registration from July to October as part of preparations for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in December this year.

According to The Philippine STAR, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the voter registration, originally scheduled from July 1 to 11, will take place in the last week of October, or after the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections. It will run until July 2026.

“Voter registration cannot continue because 11 days are not enough," the Philippine News Agency also quoted Garcia as saying. "The Bangsamoro (voters) might get confused if voter registration will be conducted and they won't be able to vote in the BPE. The registration is for BSKE, we will just continue voter registration after the BPE."

Garcia noted that the new schedule is made just in case President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. signs the proposed measure seeking to extend the term of barangay and SK officials. (Last June 11, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report on Senate Bill 2816 and House Bill 11287.)

Garcia noted they will also carry on with their preparations for the BSKE, which is slated for Dec. 1, until Marcos signs a law postponing it.

"What if we stop our preparations but the law isn't signed or someone goes to the Supreme Court and gets a temporary restraining order? We will be the ones facing the problem," he said.

The 2025 midterm elections were held last May 12. This year's polls saw an 81.65% voter turnout in the early count, the highest in the country's midterm elections history, according to Comelec. That meant a total of 55,874,700 out of 68,431,965 registered voters cast their ballots.