Poll body eyes proclamation of senators, party-lists by early next week
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections on Sunday said it might proclaim senators and party-lists representatives by Tuesday.
The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NOBC), is on its sixth day of canvassing for the senatorial race and party-list votes. The NBOC has so far canvassed 86.13% of the certificates of canvass (COC) or 149 out of the 173.
“We are on track with our timeline. We told everyone before that we would be proclaiming by early next week and Tuesday is still considered early next week. We really hope to receive the other COCs by then,” Comelec acting spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said in a mix of English and Filipino during a press conference Sunday afternoon.
Out of the 24 COCs, Laudiangco said, 19 are from foreign service posts. The board is waiting for the manual COCs from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, the Vatican, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Syria and Mexico.
“From the latest information from the Overseas Voting Committee, these are already in transit so we’re just waiting for them to arrive,” Laudiangco said.
The COCs from posts abroad that will be included in canvassing on Sunday are from India, Laos, Pakistan, Hungary, Poland and Chile.
Meanwhile, the NBOC will also be waiting for the manual COC for the Vulnerable Sector’s Office, and one manual COC covering 63 barangays in North Cotabato as well as the electronic transmission of COCs from BARMM Lanao del Sur, Jordan, and Hong Kong.
The NBOC will be considering going ahead with the transmission and canvassing of votes in Hong Kong, considering its certificate covers results from Macau, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Voting for Filipinos based in Shanghai has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak there that led to a lockdown.
"They’re still under lockdown, we have to conduct special elections, we’re now studying the possibility of having to transmit all those unaffected by Shanghai," Laudiangco said.
However, the poll body said it is "entertaining the possibility of proclaiming the top-tiered party-lists" or those it thinks will not be affected by votes that have yet to be transmitted.
Senators and party-list representatives will be proclaimed in separate ceremonies.
Meanwhile, the canvassing of votes for the president and vice-presidential candidates will be done once Congress resumes session on May 23.
According to the poll body’s partial and unofficial count, presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leads with over 16 million votes, garnering 31.10 million. Uniteam tandem vice-presidential aspirant Sara Duterte-Carpio also leads with over 22 million votes with 31.56 million individuals backing her candidacy.
The poll body said 54.192 million Filipinos voted on Monday with a voter turnout of 83.05%.
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