Duterte, Marcos lead LAV tally as canvassing resumes

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) -- convened as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) -- resumed the canvassing of votes for senators and party-lists Wednesday morning at the Philppine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

 

NBOC, through its secretariat, began opening ballot boxes from overseas at around 8:30 a.m.

 

Lawyers representing senatorial and party-list bets examined the ballot boxes that came all the way from Athens, Ankara, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Canberra, Dhaka, Dili, Islamabad, Jakarta, New Delhi and Warsaw.

 

The board also began canvassing votes cast during Local Absentee Voting. Most local absentee voters chose Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as front-runners for president and vice president.

 

 

Local absentee voting is allowed by law and covers government employees, military and police personnel, and members of the media who are registered voters but who are expected to be on duty on election day.

 

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said that 41 of a total 165 certificates of canvass (COC) have been accounted for by the the NBOC.

 

On Tuesday, Bautista clarified that Congress, and not the NBOC, will proclaim the new president and vice president. 

 

Congress is set to convene as the NBOC tentatively on the third week of May.  They are expected to resume session on May 23.