All is set for the month-long overseas absentee voting for the May 13 midterm polls.
Commission on Elections Office for Overseas Voting Director Elaiza David said they are ready for the conduct of the overseas voting starting today, Saturday, April 13.
“We are all set for this April 13 start of elections,” she said. “We are 99 percent ready. There is no such thing as perfect 100 percent. So 99 percent,” added David.
However, there will be no overseas voting in three Philippine posts – Damascus in Syria, Tripoli in Libya, and Baghdad in Iraq.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez explained this was due to the prevailing local conditions there.
David expressed hope that the voter turnout will be higher compared to the two previous midterm elections. “Hopefully, our turn out will be higher than 16 percent, somewhere in the 25 percent,” she said.
Data from the Comelec-Office for Overseas Voting revealed that the voter turnout in the 2007 and 2013 polls was 16 percent.
There are 1,822,173 overseas voters for next month, majority of whom are land based workers totaling 1,779,140. Sea-based workers totaled 43,033.
According to David, most of the registered voters are in the Middle East and Africa totaling 887,744; followed by the Asia-Pacific region with 401,390; North and Latin American region with 345,415; and European region with 187,624. (Leslie Aquino)
