Marcos camp claims taking early lead after unofficial exit polls in HK voting

BY Seth Cabanban
Apr 11, 2022 12:11 PM

The camp of Bongbong Marcos, citing two unofficial exit polls posted on social media, has claimed that the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard-bearer has received 85 percent and 83 percent of the overseas Filipino workers' (OFW) votes in Hong Kong (HK) and Qatar, respectively.

A 20-year-old first-time voter is visibly excited as she waits for her voter receipt to be printed by the Voting Counting Machine, which will be later dropped in the designated receptacle box (PHOTO FROM PHILIPPINE EMBASSY IN QATAR FB)

In a press statement sent to the media on Monday, April 11, the Marcos camp cited two unofficial polls conducted by an HK-based OFW named Bryan Calagui and a Qatar-based OFW named Annaliza Segura.

Based on the two migrant Filipinos' social media accounts, they both appear to be staunch Marcos supporters.

According to Calagui’s unofficial exit poll which appears to have been tallied by hand and posted on his Facebook page, Marcos took about 3,357 of the OFW votes in HK.

The rest of the pack received rather measly votes, with Vice President Leni Robredo getting 65, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso with 18, and Senator Manny Pacquiao with 15.

Meanwhile, Segura claimed that Marcos garnered 83 percent of the OFW vote in Qatar. However, her Facebook account did not feature any tally as of this posting.

Marcos and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, comprise the UniTeam. Both Marcos and Duterte are survey frontrunners.

It should be noted that Commission on Elections (Comelec) Spokesperson James Jimenez has said that exit polls conducted by entities outside of reliable survey firms are unreliable, especially those spread on social media.

“An ‘exit poll’ is not the official tally of votes cast in the 2022 National and Local Elections. Tandaan din na bibilangin lang ang mga boto ng (Let’s remember that votes will be counted after) Overseas Voting on May 9, after the close of polls,” Jimenez said on April 11, on the same day that the unofficial polls began to go viral on social media.

OFW voting for the 2022 national elections officially began on Saturday, April 10.

According to the Comelec, about 1.7 million OFWs are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections; OFWs represent 2.8 percent of all voters out of 65,745,529 registered voters.

Only 28 days remain before the May 9 elections.

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