MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections, sitting en banc, said it approved to suspend overseas voting in Shanghai due to an indefinite lockdown in the area.
Filipinos will start casting their ballots in Philippine embassies and consulate offices on Sunday until May 10.
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But over in China, over 20,000 tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and Shanghai accounted for 80% of those infected. Majority of the cases are asymptomatic.
The recent virus surge in China is said to be driven by the Omicron variant.
“Once the lockdown is lifted, then we will proceed with the voting in Shanghai,” Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said.
Out of the 1.697 million overseas Filipino voters, there are 1,991 Comelec-registered voters based in China’s largest city.
Meanwhile, the commission is also planning to suspend elections in other countries and areas.
“I think we will be declaring a suspension of elections in certain areas like in Baghdad, Iraq, Tripoli [Philippine Embassy, which has jurisdiction over] Algeria, Chad, Tunisia, [and] Libya, Islamabad PE [for] Afghanistan, Ukraine [through] Warsaw PE. However, the total affected OV is only 127 so it’s only a number of voters,” Casquejo said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Comelec said the final testing and sealing of the ballots for overseas voting will continue until April 7, Thursday. However, some posts affected by the pandemic would need more time for the FTS.
Voting in-person or through mail
Comelec said the Philippines has 92 posts overseas, half of which have an automated election system while the other posts have a manual system.
Only 16 posts will give overseas voters the option to vote either in-person or through mailing in their ballots. Comelec said 24 posts only offer in-person voting, while a majority or 52 of the posts require postal voting.
On Tuesday, representatives from Migrante International and 1Sambayan based abroad aired frustration and concern that some voters would get disenfranchised. They said their respective Philippine posts have yet to disseminate information on the upcoming month-long polls, while some of their members have yet to receive their ballots.
Comelec said mailing of the ballots would sometimes get delayed because operations are affected by the pandemic.
“Minsan kasi, medyo late na rin natatanggap ni post yung official ballots mismo… maybe yung iba ngayon they already start sending the ballots once they receive it and then yung iba once they receive the official ballots, meron silang activity na tinatawag nating field voting,” Casquejo said.
(Sometimes, the posts themselves would receive the ballots late… maybe some of them, they start sending out the ballots once they receive them and then the others, once they receive the official ballots, they would have an activity called field voting.)
Some embassies, like the one in Thailand, bring ballots to Filipino voters in certain far-flung areas. The poll body said these posts would set up an area where migrants can cast their votes.
Meanwhile, Comelec said some of the voters also do not have updated address records with their embassy.
“The Foreign Department of Foreign Affairs, they are trying their best in their social media accounts to disseminate information with regards to this activity of voting,” Casquejo said in a mix of English and Filipino.
But in an attempt to increase voter turnout, Comelec’s Office of Overseas Voting adopted the “vote anywhere” resolution two weeks ago. Casquejo said this would allow any overseas Filipino registered to vote to cast their ballots in any Philippine embassy or consulate. — Kaycee Valmonte with report from Agence France-Presse