Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya said that crowds began queuing at Robinsons Bacolod as early as 8 p.m. on Saturday for the start of voter registration on Sunday morning.*Greg Gasataya Facebook page photo
The number of voter registrants for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in the Negros Island Region has exceeded expectations, Lionel Marco Castillano, director of the Commission on Elections-NIR, said on Sunday night, August 10.
There was an especially large turnout of youth voters aged 15 to 17 who are qualified to vote in the SK elections, he said.
The 10-day registration of voters ended on Sunday, but Castillano said they would release the total number of NIR registrants on Monday since they had yet to tally the numbers from Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.
This was because as of Sunday night they were still registering voters who were waiting in line during the cutoff time at 5 p.m., he said.
He said early Sunday figures showed 8,000 had registered for the day, but the number could exceed 25,000.
On Saturday, the registrants for the day were 20,838, with 12,286 from Negros Occidental, 7,567 from Negros Oriental, and 985 from Siquijor.
That brought the total registrants from August 1 to 9 to 104,132, with 62,490 in Negros Occidental, 37,982 in Negros Oriental, and 3,660 in Siquijor, Castillano said.
Castillano attributed the large turnout of youth voters to his writing the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education in the NIR to help with the Comelec’s information dissemination on voter registration.
He said all the schools were informed, which is why there were a lot of youth registrants.
“It is good that the youth are now participating in the process,” he said.
Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya, on his Facebook page, said that crowds were already lining up at Robinsons Bacolod as early as 8 p.m. Saturday for the start of voter registration on Sunday morning.
The mayor contacted Col. Joeresty Coronica, Bacolod City Police Director, to secure the area and sent portable toilets to the site to accommodate the large crowd.*