The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is expecting as many as 100 million voters to participate in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), which were postponed to November next year.
At present, COMELEC Chairman Atty. George Erwin Garcia said the country has 68,921,863 registered voters.
“Our projection maybe we will reach, for the Barangay and SK, we have 24 million Sangguniang Kabataan, maybe we will reach 100 million voters in the upcoming elections,” Garcia said.
He explained that manual counting will be implemented for the BSKE, which means the process may take longer compared to automated national elections, since teachers will have to manually tally the ballots.
Despite this, Garcia assured that teachers serving during the polls will receive an across-the-board increase in honoraria. The House of Representatives has already approved an additional ₱7.46 billion budget for COMELEC to fund the conduct of the elections.
Garcia also noted that around 3 million individuals have already registered to vote for the BSKE.
Meanwhile, voter registration for the BSKE is temporarily suspended until November 2 in observance of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days. The registration period will resume on November 3 and continue until May 18 next year.