BAGUIO CITY — In contrast to the poor influx of new registrants to the offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nationwide, this city is encountering problems on how to accommodate the hundreds of new voters wanting to avail of the extended registration of voters for the upcoming May 2010 elections.

For the first three days of the extended registration, the Comelec field office here was able to register 569 new voters with more yet to come because of the remaining two days of registration next week.

However, lawyer Modesto Bahol, city election officer, admitted many voters are still confused on the extended registration of new voters since there are numerous transferees and those seeking reactivation of their voting rights who continuously flock to their office, adding up to the mess created by the influx of new voters.

He claimed the local Comelec office could only accommodate a maximum of 200 new registrants per day, the numbers they are giving out in the mornings are easily issued out because of the influx of new voters who were not able to avail of the over 10 months of registration since October 2008.

Bahol said Dec. 29 will be the last day of registration of new voters and that their office hours will only be until 5 pm but they could extend until 12 midnight if their central office orders them to render overtime work to accommodate last-minute registrants.

To prevent confusion and overcrowding in the Comelec offices when registration resumes, Bahol advised new voters to immediately avail of the prolonged registration in the future rather than be part of the problem during the last days of registration where everyone flocks to the Comelec offices.

Bahol credited the heavy influx of voters to Comelec offices in urban centers to the existence of media outfits that have been constantly announcing and publishing the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) on the extended registration.