THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is targeting a 50 percent voter turnout in the month-long overseas voting for the May 12 midterm polls.
Comelec chairman George Garcia said they are hopeful that more overseas voters will participate in this year’s polls, compared to the 20 percent turnout in 2019.
“For this elections, we hope to reach 50 percent voter turnout or some 600,000 casting their votes, especially now that we are using internet voting,” Garcia said in an interview.
Since the overseas voting period began last April 13, Garcia said the turnout has so far been satisfactory.
“We hope our kababayans will heed our call. They still have 21 days to cast their votes,” he said.
The poll chief, though, noted that having midterm elections usually have a low voter turnout when compared to the presidential elections.
“That has been the trend every midterm elections, the turnout is usually low since they are not electing president and vice president,” said Garcia.
For the May 2025 polls, there are an estimated 1.241 million registered overseas voters.
The overseas voting period is set to run from April 13 to May 12.
Meanwhile, Garcia said 762 polling precincts will be covered by the Random Manual Audit (RMA) to be conducted immediately after the May 12 midterm elections.
“We will use an electronic raffle system to select the 762 polling precincts to be subjected to the RMA,” he said after a meeting of the RMA Committee.
He added that one Philippine post abroad that used the online voting system will also be subjected to the random audit.
“It is possible to cover more Philippine posts abroad for the RMA depending on the request of the committee,” he said.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 11089, the number of polling precincts covered by the RMA is based on the proportional number of clustered precincts in every legislative district nationwide.
In addition, only one Philippine post shall be randomly selected from the list of areas that will use the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS).
The Comelec said the random selection of the clustered precincts to be subjected to the RMA shall be conducted publicly on Election Day.
Garcia said the RMA will check if the poll results produced by the voting machines match the manually counted ballots.
“The public, especially those doubting the election results, should wait for the results of the RMA as it will be the one to determine if the votes counted by the machines are correct,” he said.
Since the 2010 polls, Garcia said the RMA has determined 99.9 percent accuracy rates between the manual and automated counting results.
Aside from the Comelec, also part of the RMAC are representatives of the Department of Education (DepEd), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL).
