Comelec expects higher overseas voter turnout for May 2022 polls than previous elections


The May 2022 polls is already proving itself to be a notable juncture that will go down in the country's history as it is evident with the initial turnout of votes overseas, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

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)

The poll body is expecting a higher overseas voter turnout in the May 2022 polls than in the 2016, 2019 elections, Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said in an television interview over the ABS-CBN News Channel on Thursday, April 21.

"Our overseas voting right now is very much interesting because you know in the first day there are so many overseas voters who wanted to vote. So we are expecting a much higher voting turnout as compared in 2016 and 2019 elections," he said.

According to Casquejo, who currently heads the Office of Overseas Voting of the Comelec, in the previous elections, the poll body only recorded about 20 or even less than 20 percent overseas voting turnout.

This time, he disclosed that in some countries like in Hong Kong about 30 percent have already voted while in others, they have reported 20 percent voter turnout.

"For this early time of period of voting we have already reached our target which is more than 30 percent so we are expecting a higher voting turnout," he said.

He attributed this improvement to the voting schemes that they introduced which were vote anywhere concept and field voting.

Casquejo explained that in field voting, the country's consul will go to the area where the overseas voters are residing. He mentioned that there were issues before that were raised related to the distance between the embassy and where Filipino citizens reside. Some of them, Casquejo said, had to travel for two to three hours "So what we did is the consul and the embassy together with the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) will go to that area and then conduct the voting," he added.

On the other hand, the "vote anywhere" concept allows a voter registered in another country to vote in the country where he or she currently is during the voting period.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia said that the overseas voting has been generally peaceful.

"May alingasngas, fake news pala, di pala totoo (There were issues that turn out to be untrue)," he said.

He also stated that this is the first time that the number of overseas voters increased and that they hope that it will go even higher with more voters lining up in the embassies and consulates.