Comelec expects higher overseas voter turnout

MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials are expecting a bigger overseas voter turnout than in previous elections regardless of all the controversy and “fake news” hounding the voting system.

Commissioner George Garcia yesterday said the month-long overseas absentee voting (OAV) which began April 10 has been generally peaceful.

“There have been some controversy – fake news as it turns out; apparently, untrue,” Garcia said in Filipino. “It’s been generally peaceful. Everything has gone well.”

Amid reports of Filipinos overseas lining up at embassies and consulates, he expressed hope that more overseas voters will turn up this year.

Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the overseas voting is “very much interesting.”

“We are expecting a much higher voting turnout as compared with the 2016 and 2019 elections,” said Casquejo, noting encouraging numbers along voting lines with more than two weeks left before the last day on May 9.

To date, he said about 30 percent of registered voters in Hong Kong have already cast their ballots, while in other countries, the turnout is at 20 percent.

All over the world, there are 1.7 million registered overseas Filipinos entitled to vote for president, vice president, senators and a party-list group.

Here in the Philippines, everything is ready for the May 9 national and local elections except for the final ballots to be printed and the complete deployment of election paraphernalia and vote counting machines (VCMs) nationwide.

Garcia said the Comelec has identified 372,878 out of the 67,442,616 printed ballots to be defective and need reprinting.

With 17 days to go before election day, he said they can and will finish all the printing requirements and schedule the destruction of the defective ballots.

Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan said everything is going on schedule. “Deployment (of election paraphernalia) is ongoing, so we’re ready for the election. We are in fact ahead of schedule in terms of deployment,” he said.

Also, the Comelec signed a memorandum of agreement with the Commission on Higher Education for a voter education campaign aimed at helping increase the voter turnout and strengthen “democracy in the country.”

Makeshift polling precincts for Agaton-hit areas

Meanwhile, makeshift polling centers will be constructed in areas ravaged by storm Agaton, according to Comelec Executive Director Bartolome Sinocruz Jr.

As of yesterday, the Comelec regional office in Leyte has already procured the needed materials for the makeshift polling precincts.

Although these temporary structures will be made of wood, Sinocruz said they will be built according to the needs of a particular area to ensure that a good number of voters would be accommodated.

“It would depend on what is required, like a small small room... it will be approximately the same size as a polling room,” he said in Filipino.

When asked about prepositioned election paraphernalia, Sinocruz said that none of them were affected by the damage wrought by Agaton.

He said the VCMs, the Broadband Global Area Network and the Consolidated and Canvassing System were still en route to Leyte when the storm hit the province.