At least 10 percent of the registered voters overseas or 170,000 voters have already cast their votes so far, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said during a press briefing on Thursday, April 28.
“A total of 175,266 as of today... So as of now we are already at 10 percent of out total population or total registered voters. 175,266 is more or less more than 10 percent,” said poll Commissioner Marlon S. Casquejo, pertaining to the ballots cast overseas.
“This update concerns our overseas voting as of now but this is not accurate because some of the posts did not submit the number of overseas voters who submitted their mail-in ballots,” he added.
The Comelec commissioner said a total of 76,745 have already voted in the Asia Pacific.
“Some of which are postal which the ballots were received by our posts,” he added.
Casquejo said 13,462 overseas voters have cast their votes in Europe, while 83,450 Filipinos already voted in the Middle East and Africa.
“In Americas, we have 1,809. Dito sa Americas hindi po lahat nag-submit ng (Here in the Americas, not all of them submitted) data so this is not accurate,” he said.
He stressed that such data is not accurate because some of the posts have yet to be submitted.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 10751, "Posts" are defined as short for Foreign Service Posts, which refer to Philippine embassies, consulates, foreign service establishments, and other Philippine government agencies maintaining offices abroad like the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) which have jurisdiction over the places where the overseas voters reside.