CLOSE to five million registered voters have been deactivated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ahead of the May 2025 national and local polls.
Data released by the Comelec show that there are 4,903,415 registered voters whose records were deactivated after the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
A large majority of those deactivated, or 4,898,744 voters, are those who failed to vote in two successive preceding regular elections as shown by their voting records.
There were also 3,663 voters, who were deactivated in accordance with court orders to exclude them, while another 1,003 voters failed to validate their records.
Other reasons for deactivation include loss of Filipino citizenship (3), sentenced by final judgment to suffer imprisonment for not less than one year (1), and sentenced by final judgment of having committed a crime involving disloyalty to the duly constituted government (1).
Calabarzon had the most number of deactivated voters with 733,903 registration records.
More than half a million voters were also deactivated in the National Capital Region (618,121) and Central Luzon (503,297).
Other regions with a high number of deactivated voters are Western Visayas (384,001), Central Visayas (363,968), and Bicol Region (315,971).
To recall, there were 67,839,861 registered voters during the 2023 barangay and youth polls.
Voter registration activities, including reactivation of registration records, for the May 2025 polls, on the other hand, are ongoing until September 30, 2024.
