Young voters to dominate 2019 polls

More than one-third of voters in next year’s national and election polls are young men and women under the 18 to 35 age range, the spokesperson of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

At a media forum in Manila, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said this translates to about 20 million voters out of the 61 million expected number of voters.

Of the number, 1.9 million are potentially overseas Filipino workers.

Crowd at the Commission on Elections.

The young electorate was followed by the oldest demographic (senior citizens aged 60 and up) and then the middle-aged population.

“Malaki ang impluwensiya ng kabataan sa darating na eleksiyon. Dahil nadagdagan ng alumni ng Sangguniang Kabataan na di na kailangang magparehistro ngayon (The youth’s influence in the coming elections is big. This is because those who registered for the [2018] Youth Council polls do not need to register again),” Jimenez said.

The filing of certificate of candidacy started on Thursday “but your time to choose your candidates is running out. By now, you should know who you are looking for,” he said.

“The most important thing right now is for the youth to decide what the issues are. The problem with us is that we get overwhelmed with collateral noise,” he added.

The filing of CoCs for the national and local elections in May next year were set on October 11, 12, 15, 16 and 17.

Those who voted in the recently held barangay (village) and youth council polls are automatically eligible to vote in the 2019 elections, Jimenez said.