Comelec reopens voter registration in November for 2028 elections

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will reopen local voter registration in November as it prepares for the 2028 national and local elections, while aiming to increase the number of registered overseas voters to 1 million.

Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia said local registration is expected to resume in the second week of November 2026 and continue until July 30, 2027, giving Filipinos time to register, transfer their registration, or reactivate their voter status.

Garcia said the registration period would also give the Comelec enough time to finalize and clean up the voter list, print the lists of voters, and allow candidates to verify the registered electorate ahead of the 2028 elections.

“We scheduled the voter’s registration early to allow the Comelec to finalize the list of voters. Secondly, so we can cleanse the list—checking, for instance, if the voters’ fingerprints match,” he said during a media briefing on Sept. 30.

“Also, so we can print the lists early, both the ones with photos to be posted outside the precincts and those to be placed inside. And fourthly, so that candidates can verify the existence of registered voters.”

The Comelec currently has about 71 million registered voters and expects around 3 million more voters to reactivate their registration bringing the total to about 74 million by the 2028 elections.

The poll body aims to have the ballots and lists of voters printed by December 2027.

Separately, Garcia said the Comelec is also seeking to increase overseas voter registration, noting the relatively low number of Filipinos abroad who are registered to vote.

“It is very disheartening that, while the number of Filipinos abroad is estimated to reach 12 million, only 1.2 million registered for the 2022 elections, and only 1.1 million for the 2025 elections—partly because around 600,000 registrations were deactivated,” Garcia said.

The poll body has been conducting registration activities abroad, but Garcia said some Filipinos may hesitate to register because they are seeking citizenship in another country or have expired passports.

“The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) also cannot explain why the number of registrants is low; honestly, we are already setting up satellite registration sites. Some people do not want to register because they have applied for citizenship in another country, as doing so could sometimes lead to the denial or compromise of their citizenship application.”

He added that an expired passport does not prevent overseas Filipinos from renewing their voter registration.

“We don’t care whether your passports are expired or not. Your status in that country has no bearing on your eligibility to vote.”

Garcia said overseas voter registration for the 2028 elections will run until September 2027.

For overseas voting, Garcia said the Comelec has implemented a fully online voting system, which he hopes will encourage more Filipinos abroad to participate in elections.

“We are hoping that this time, the number of registered voters will increase.” /mr