MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will reopen voter registration in the third week of October 2025 with the impending postponement of the December 1 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, Chairman George Erwin Garcia said Saturday, a day after he announced that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would sign into law a measure that resets the polls to November 2026.
In an interview on Saturday, Garcia said the next registration window would begin shortly after the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections and would run until July 2026 — giving the public a much longer period to register, transfer, or reactivate their voting status.
“If the postponement becomes final, we plan to resume registration by the third week of October next year, right after the Bangsamoro polls,” Garcia said. “This will continue until July 2026, several months before the rescheduled Barangay and SK elections.”
The plan is contingent on the signing of the proposed law on August 12.
Garcia assured voters who register between Aug. 1 to 10, 2025 — the current 10-day window — that their registration remained valid and would not be affected by any changes to the election date. The extended registration next year, he clarified, would only apply to those who missed the ongoing period, as well as to voters seeking reactivation or transfer of their records.
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Comelec maintained that preparations must continue in the absence of a final law, citing possible legal challenges that could still require the commission to proceed with the original December 1 schedule.
