The official canvassing of votes continued Thursday, May 12, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City where the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc convened as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) for the senatorial and party-list elections.
Comelec acting spokesperson Director John Rex Laudiangco said 82 out of the total 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) have already been canvassed by the NBOC on the third day of the canvassing. The canvassing started last Tuesday.
The canvassed COCs accounted for 33,965,926 registered voters but only 28,805,168 voters actually cast their votes for a voter turnout of 84.81 percent.
Still, Laudiangco said that the voter turnout was relatively high.
The result of the canvassing is yet to be released as of press time.
He said that once the official canvassing of votes is finished, the Comelec expects that the voter turnout will be around 80.5 percent to 81 percent. This translates to around 54 million people who cast their votes out of the total 67 million registered voters.
“The statistical alignment can be seen across the line. The record in the canvassed report is 84 percent, and our estimate is around 80.5 percent to 81 percent so they are aligned,” Laudiangco said.
“We are really glad that this statistical data proves the credibility of the elections. Walang (There are no) anomalies,” he added.
The Comelec en banc was scheduled to reconvene around 3 p.m. Thursday to continue the canvassing of votes.
“We expect more today, the third day,” Laudiangco said.