MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Friday, June 21, it will hold a new round of voter registration starting August 2019.

In a statement, Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said the voter registration is expected to run from August 1 to September 30.

Local Comelec offices will also be open on Saturdays and holidays for the activity, Jimenez added.

This round of registration is for the next barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, scheduled for May 11, 2020, as of this writing. There are efforts in Congress to postpone the elections to either 2022 or 2023.

Jimenez said the SK voters won’t need to register again once they turn 18 years old, because their voter records will be automatically transferred to the regular list of voters. 

The poll body is expecting that around 2 million new voters will register.

In the 2019 midterm elections, there were 61.84 million Philippine-based voters, and 1.82 million overseas absentee voters. – Rappler.com