THE City Elections Office is eyeing 6,000 more new voters in Dagupan when registration of voters resumes nationwide on December 12 this year till January 31, 2023.

City Elections Officer Michael Franks Sarmiento told a news conference that the registration in Dagupan will kick off  in their office simultaneously with satellite registration to be held at the Pugaro Integrated School.

Targets of the registration are new voters from 15 to 17 years old who are voting for the first time in the Sangguniang Kabataan elections that will be held with the Barangay elections next year, the date of which will depend on the resolution of a case filed before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of Republic Act 11935 that reset the Barangay and SK elections originally scheduled last December 5, 2022 to October 30, 2023 or as early as June next year if the Supreme Court favors the petition.

Sarmiento said the choice of Pugaro Integrated School as initial satellite site is to boost registration of high school students between 15 years old or 17 years old who can vote but only for the SK election.

He expects the city election office to register more or less 200 new voters from every integrated school or high school.

The City Mall in Mayombo offered to host a voters’ registration site from January 23 to 31.

Meanwhile, Sarmiento said the Comelec central office will soon launch a Register Anywhere Project (RAP) in Manila and a province in Region 5. The scheme will allow a voter for instance from Dagupan but working in Metro Manila to register under RAP where his or her biometrics are taken but the electronic copy of the biometrics will be sent to Dagupan City.

Based on data of the May 9, 2022 election, there were some 140,000 registered voters in Dagupan and could be 144,000 or more after the new voters’ registration. It will be the biggest number of voters expected to be registered in Region 1, he said. (Leonardo Micua)

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