The Commission on Elections (Comelec) expressed optimism on Saturday, Sept. 17 that it can surpass a 70 percent voter turnout in the recently-concluded Maguindanao plebiscite
"If this happens, na malampasan natin ang 70 percent, we are breaking history po pagdating sa mga plebisito ((If we surpass the 70 percent voter turnout, we are breaking when it comes to plebiscites) and we owe that to the people of Maguindanao, for deciding for themselves the fate of their province," Comelec Acting Spokesperson John Rex C. Laudiangco said during a press briefing.
The plebiscite aims to settle the question of whether the voters agree or disagree to divide Maguindanao into two provinces, as provided by Republic Act No. 11550.
It was reported to us that all of the 1,667 clustered precincts functioned po, gumana po lahat at pati po yung ating mahigit 5,000 poll workers from the DepEd sila pong lahat ay nagampanan ang kanilang mga tungkulin dito sa plebisitong ito. Right now we are receiving data coming from the 12 municipalities kung maratify po na magbebelong sa Maguindanao del Norte at yung 24 municipalities naman po again kung maratify RA 11550 sa Maguindanao del sur.
Laudiangco bared that the general average of voter turnout for plebiscites before the May 2022 elections was around 28 to 30 percent. He added that after the said elections, the average of the plebiscites increased.
He mentioned that in the plebiscites in Calaca a few weeks ago, 56 percent was the average. For Maguindanao, Laudiangco said that they are expecting to exceed 56 percent voter turnout.
Meanwhile, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia stated that they will postpone canvassing and conduct it on Sunday, Sept. 18. During the press briefing, Garcia said that this will give time to members of the board of canvassers to rest and that they also want to push through with the canvassing in one go.
"Kami dito sa operations center natin malalaman na namin agad ang result sa mga presinto (Us here in the operations center we will immediately know the results in the precincts). It’s just matter of computing and adding everything dito sa (here in the) provincial plebiscite board of canvassers," he added. On the other hand, Laudiangco stated that in terms of the security situation they received reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police that there were no untoward incidents in all of their checkpoints, as well as in Comelec checkpoints.