The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Pangasinan is targeting to register 75,000 to 100,000 voters for the midterm national and local elections this year.

In an interview on Monday, COMELEC-Pangasinan election supervisor lawyer Marino Salas said some 67,000 voters have already registered since the process started last Feb. 12.

Registration will run until Sept. 30 this year, he said.

Salas said they have been conducting off-site registrations in various malls, villages, and schools.

He said that after the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (village and youth council) elections in 2022, the COMELEC cleansed the voters’ registration and has removed from the official list over 100,000 voters who either failed to vote twice, are already dead, or have transferred.

Pangasinan has a total of 2.056 million voters to date.

“But these removed numbers would be covered as our estimate for voters’ registration will reach a conservative estimate of 75,000 to 100,000,” he said in Filipino.

Salas said there is an ongoing training for their personnel in preparation for the midterm elections, citing the importance of exercising the right to suffrage of every Filipino.

COMELEC-Pangasinan conducted a Voter’s Education and Registration Fair at the Pangasinan State University-Lingayen campus on Monday.

COMELEC-Ilocos regional assistant election officer lawyer Reddy Balarbar, in a separate interview, said they are making the services of their office accessible to the people.

“We give emphasis to the rights of the voters in this activity,” he said.

Joward Parungo Medina, PSU-Bayambang campus student council president, said the activity is beneficial to the students.

“We will relay to the students in our campuses what we have learned here,” he said.

Over 1,000 student council leaders from the nine campuses of PSU attended the event. (PNA)