Overseas voter turnout now at 23%

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THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said overseas absentee voting for the May 9 elections already has a 23 percent voter turnout.

In a press conference, Elections Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said 385,437 overseas voters have already cast their votes worldwide.

“We have a good turnout. As of today, we are already at 23 percent voting turnout so far,” said Casquejo.

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“With this trend, we are likely to surpass the previous turnouts,” he added.

Middle East and African nations have the highest number of voters at 148,127; followed by Asia Pacific with 139,041.

The Americas already have 56,550 voters, while there are 41,719 voters in the European region.

In the previous elections, the turnout for overseas voting during the presidential elections in 2004 was 233,137 voters (65%), in 2010 at 153,323 voters (26%), and 2016 at 430,695 voters (31%).

Comparatively, midterm polls have had lower voter turnouts with 2007 having 81,732 voters (16%), 2013 having 118,823 voters (16%), and 2019 with 336,447 voters (18%).

As for those that have yet to cast their votes, Casquejo urged them to pay Philippine posts a visit before the May 9 deadline.

This, he said, include those that are set to cast their votes via the postal voting method.

“If they haven’t been able to get their ballots, they can go to the post or embassy, get the ballots, sign a waiver and affidavit that they haven’t voted yet,” said Casquejo.

“If you haven’t received the ballots, you can go to the posts. It is allowed,” he added.

There are 1,697,215 registered overseas voters for the May 2022 polls.

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