• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Commission on Elections has deleted 113,776 voters in Negros Occidental, following a comprehensive review by the Election Registration Board during its hearing on January 19, Provincial Election Supervisor Atty. Ian Lee Ananoria recently disclosed.
Comelec records showed that 109, 864 voters were deleted for failure to participate in two consecutive elections, while 3,239 already have died. A total of 639 others have relocated to other areas, while 31 others were included in compliance with court orders.
Ananoria said the regular purging of voters list is essential to prevent disenfranchisement and maintain public trust in the electoral processes. He, however, said that those who have been deactivated from the list may still reactivate their status, through the ongoing registration for the 2026 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, which will end May 18 this year.
Negros Occidental’s total registered voter count stands at 1,961,404. Of the number, 931,275 are male and 1,009,129 are female, reflecting a slight majority of female voters in the province.
In previous national elections, Negros Occidental ranked number one it terms of the number of voters in all provinces of the country, according to Ananoria.
The highly urbanized Bacolod City topped the list of 32 local government units in the province, having the most deleted voters at 20,495.*
