THE month-long overseas voting for Filipinos kicked off yesterday and will run until 7 p.m. of May 12, the Commissions on Elections (Comelec) said.
Elections chairman George Garcia said the overseas voting started after the test voting period officially ended at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.
In an interview with dzBB radio, Garcia said the overseas votes will not be opened and counted until the voting officially ends at 7 p.m. of May 12.
Overseas voters will only vote for senators and party-list group.
They can cast their votes in 77 posts via the internet, while manual voting is available in 16 posts in Philippine embassies or consulates.
Internet voting abroad is open 24 hours a day.
Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said registered Filipinos in New Zealand (GMT+12), which is under the Philippine embassy in Wellington, were the first to cast their votes at 4 a.m. Manila time.
Filipinos in Guam and Australia (GMT+10) came next at 6 a.m. Philippine time. There are four voting sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra.
Voting centers at the Nagoya Philippine Consul General (PCG), Osaka PCG, Tokyo Philippine Embassy (PE), and Seoul PE opened at 7 a.m. Manila time.
On the other hand, voting centers at the Brunei PE, Hong Kong PCG, Kuala Lumpur PE, Macau PCG, Manado PCG, MECO Kaohsiung, MECO Taichung, MECO Taipei at Singapore PE opened at 8 a.m.
Filipinos voted at a latter time on Sunday morning in Bangkok; Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Jakarta, Bangladesh, Dhaka, India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
Meanwhile, voting centers opened in the afternoon in Greece, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Kenya, Israel, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Denmark, Italy, Norway, France, Czech Republic, Rome, Sweden, The Netherlands, The Vatican, Poland, Egypt, South Africa, Portugal, United Kingdom, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, United States, Canada, Chile, and Mexico.
The Comelec said there are an estimated 1.231 million Filipino voters abroad.
In the 2022 elections, the overseas voters turnout was placed at 40.59 percent.
