ILOILO City – There are 2,550,691 female registered voters in Western Visayas – outnumbering the 2,475,791 registered male voters.
Data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed a total of 5,026,482 Western Visayans are eligible to vote in the May 9 synchronized national and local elections.
However, according to Atty. Wilfred Jay Balisado, Comelec regional director, it remains unclear if more female voters than male would go out and vote on Election Day.
“Ang mga babae kasi when it comes to voting medyo dehado sila. For example ang nanay boboto sana pero may labada. Boboto sana sia pero walang magluluto sa bahay. Boboto sana sia pero ang anak niya nagkasakit,” said Balisado.
He added: “There are really things that only mothers can do. So, those are the factors really na nag-ma-matter during election day. Kaya kung minsan kahit marami ang babae na voters, at the end of the of the day hindi talaga sila makakaboto lahat.”
Balisado urged women voters, especially mothers, to schedule carefully the household chores they must do on May 9 so they could exercise their right to vote.
Here’s the breakdown of registered voters per province and highly urbanized city by gender:
* Iloilo – male, 802,512l; female, 826,240
* Aklan – male, 205,383; female, 204,555
* Antique – male, 192,731; female, 195,267
* Capiz – male, 262,750; female, 266,329
* Guimaras – male, 62,136; female, 61,940
* Negros Occidental – male, 950,279; female, 996,360
“Voting is a privilege given to those who are qualified. Dapat i-exercise natin ‘yan because it is the only way that people ang makapili kung sino ang mayor or congressman sa lugar natin. That’s exactly people exercising their power to choose their leaders,” said Balisado.
Region 6 has a total of 31,536 established precincts, 8,570 clustered/grouped precincts and 3,569 voting centers in 4,051 barangays.
Balisado said voters should wear facemask and observe physical distancing.
The voting on May 9 is from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m./PN
