While the registration started rather sluggishly, the last weeks of  registration had been quite busy for Philippine Embassies and Consulates as the number of registrants increased in the final week of registration. Some
registration centers have extended their registration hours to accommodate the increase in the number of Filipinos who wished to register to be able to vote in next years’ national elections. Some Posts have remained open up to 12 midnight to be able to cope with the sudden surge in the number of registrants. Partial tally as of 29 September 2003 shows that 300,693 have applied for registration.

Registration figures have increased more than 520 percent from a daily  registration average of 2,118 during the first 10 days of registration to 13,147 during Sept. 25 to 28. On Sunday, September 28, Hong Kong registered 6,856 registrants. Each data capture machine is able to process an average of 96 applicants per eight-hour operation. These figures reflect the tremendous pressure imposed by this last minute surge in the number of registrants upon Foreign Service personnel and volunteers involved in the registration process.

No reports of untoward incidents or complaints have been received by the DFA-OAV secretariat as last minute registrants tried to beat the deadline.

The DFA-OAV expects that the Comelec will not extend the registration period. This was confirmed by the DFA-OAV secretariat upon consultation with the Comelec.  - END