Comelec expects overseas voting turnout to go up to 36-37%
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections said it is expecting a higher overseas voting turnout as the data submitted by foreign service posts so far looks promising.
In a briefing held Tuesday, the poll body said there were more Filipinos abroad who voted in this year’s national and local elections versus the 2016 presidential polls.
“Umabot na po tayo ng 34.24% voting turnout so medyo mataas na as compared in 2016, nasa 32-point-something. This time, it’s 34.24%, hindi pa lahat nakapag-submit so hopefully baka tataas pa ‘to, we reach 36 or 37 percent,” Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said.
(We have now reached a voting turnout of 34.24% so it already surpassed 2016, where we saw a turnout of around 32%. This time, it’s 34.24%, and not all foreign service posts have submitted their canvass reports yet so hopefully, this number might end higher, reaching 36-37%.)
There are over 1.697 registered Filipino voters abroad who were allowed to cast their ballots beginning last month, April 10.
New York
The Philippine Consulate General in New York reported final and unofficial election results of voters under its jurisdiction, with the Leni-Kiko tandem taking the lead.
According to its update on Tuesday, Philippine time, 7,750 registered Filipino voters based in the United States Northeast voted for Vice President Leni Robredo for president. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. garnered 5,796 votes and ranking third was Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso with 967 votes.
For the vice-presidential race, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan was leading with 6,761 votes, followed by Sara Duterte-Carpio with 6,110 votes, and Willie Ong with 1,084 votes.
The 12 senators with the most number of votes under the foreign service post’s jurisdiction are: Risa Hontiveros, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, Dick Gordon, Leila De Lima, Antonio Trillanes IV, Robin Padilla, Migz Zubiri, Gilbert Teodoro, Mark Villar, and Raffy Tulfo.
Women’s party Gabriela was the leading party-list choice with 734 votes.
“We worked with everyone—from voters to poll watchers to observers and the media—to make sure that the process is transparent. We tried our best to get as many of our voters to exercise their right. We were neutral from start to finish,” the consulate there said.
Saudi Arabia
Over in Saudi Arabia, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh marked the end of the overseas voting period by presenting their canvass report to the public through a Facebook livestream.
Marcos Jr. gained the majority of the votes for the presidency with 46,748, followed by Robredo with 8,562, while Moreno trails with 2,248 votes.
Meanwhile, Duterte-Carpio also led the race for vice-president with 49,078 votes, Pangilinan behind with 6,024, and Ong with 2,410.
Hong Kong
Marcos Jr. also topped the polls in Hong Kong, gaining 4,455 votes, followed by Robredo with 617 votes, and Moreno garnered 136. Marcos Jr.'s running mate Duterte-Carpio likewise led the vice presidential race with 4,503 votes, Pangilinan with 448, and Ong with 219 votes.
However, the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-Migrante) condemned the Marcos-Duterte duo for allegedly cheating their way in this year’s elections after voters experienced a number of irregularities on election day.
The group said it is “one with the people in the Philippines and overseas in rejecting the massive electoral fraud.”
“The 2022 Philippine Elections, marred with broken vote-counting machines, extraordinarily long queues, uncounted votes, harassment, massive disenfranchisement, violence, and rampant vote-buying, made a farce out of the Filipino people's quest for honest, fair, and peaceful elections,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
UNIFIL-Migrante also called on the public to “oppose the return of Marcos-Duterte to Malacañang.” Back home, overall partial and unofficial tallies show the “UniTeam” tandem Marcos Jr. and Duterte-Carpio leading by a wide margin.
“Let us remember with rage the thousands who were tortured, killed, and disappeared, both under the Marcos and Duterte regimes,” the group said.
During the martial law era of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s two-decade long administration, Amnesty International was able to document cases of “extensive human rights violations, clearly showed a pattern of widespread arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, killings and torture of people that were critical of the government or perceived as political opponents.”
Meanwhile, human rights groups said outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has killed nearly 30,000. — Kaycee Valmonte
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