The number of voter applicants for the 2025 midterm elections has exceeded the 5 million mark, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported on Wednesday.

Based on its latest data, the poll body said it has processed a total of 5,011,815 applications from Feb. 12 to Aug. 3, which include 2,590,813 females and 2,421,002 males.

Region 4-A (Calabarzon) is still recorded with the highest numbers of applicants with 833,812 (434,679 females and 399,133 males) followed by the National Capital Region with 669,372 (363,481 females and 305,891 males) and Region 3 (Central Luzon) with 575,841 (298,251 females and 277,590 males).

Cordillera Administrative Region has the lowest number of voter applicants with 67,738 (35,213 females and 32,525 males).

The voter registration period will end on Sept. 30.

Aside from registering as new voters, applications being accepted are those for transfer, change/corrections of entries in the registration records, reactivation of registration records, inclusion of registration records and reinstatement of name in the list of voters, and transfer of registration records from foreign service post to local.

Voter registration activities are held Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in all Offices of the Election Officer (OEO) nationwide.

Meanwhile, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia is hopeful that the poll body will reach its target of 70 million registered voters at the end of the registration period.

“Ang botante natin 65.9 million. Short pa din sa ineexpect natin na 70 million. Sana yung 5.2 million (deactivated voters) ay magpa reactivate ng registration. Sana makahabol hanggang Sept. 30 (We have some 65.9 million voters. This is still short of our expectation of 70 million. We hope those 5.2 million deactivated voters would reactivate their registration. I hope they can do it until Sept. 30),” Garcia said in an interview Wednesday.

Garcia said the poll body is sparing no effort in encouraging more Filipinos to sign up as voters.

“Lumalabas tayo. Kung nasaan madaming tao, nagtatrabaho, nag-aaral, dinadala natin ang registration. Naniniwala tayo dyan. Kulang lang talaga sila sa panahon. Walang oras dahil nagtatrabaho, nag-aaral. Ilapit dapat ang registration (We go out. Where there are many people, workers, students, we bring the registration. We believe in them. They just don’t have time. They don’t have time because they are working or studying. We should bring the registration to them),” he said.

The Comelec chief said he expects long queues of voter registrations at least a week before the Sept. 30 deadline.

He also maintained that the deadline for registration will not be extended.

“By October, may hearing ang Election Registration Board, mag-finalize (ng bilang ng) botante by December para kami naman ay makapag imprenta ng balota na (The Election Registration Board will hold hearings and by December, it would finalize the number of voters so we can proceed with the printing of ballots),” Garcia added. (PNA)