Young voters may spell the final outcome of the upcoming May elections as far as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is concerned.
This after the poll body noted that over 37 million of the 65.7 million registered local voters in the 2022 national and local elections are aged 18 to 41 years old.
“That would account for 56 percent of the voting population. This is a very interesting development, it’s good for the country and I think it is important to note that the youth are the prime movers of this coming elections,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a virtual news briefing on Tuesday.
Most or 5.1 million of these voters are from Calabarzon (5.1 million). The other regions with voters from the said age group are from Central Luzon (4 million) and the National Capital Region (3.9 million).
Meanwhile, the regions with the least number of “young voters” are the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with only 611,317 and Caraga Region with 1.08 million.
The poll body has been advocating for the participation of more young voters in the elections since they tend not to rely on previous trends, when it comes to picking candidates.
Its information campaign during its voter’s registration last year was geared towards attracting more potential young voters.
Under the National Youth Commission Act, youths are persons whose age ranges from 15 to 30 years old.
“Those up to 41 years are not exactly classified as youth, but it is within that range [for youth voters],” Jimenez said.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
