MANILA, Philippines – Overseas voting for Philippine national positions has begun this April 10 and will continue until May 9.
According to the Comission on Elections (COMELEC), there are a total of 1,697,215 registered overseas voters across Asia Pacific (450,282); Europe (153,491); Middle East and Africas (786,997); and North and Latin America (306,445).
92 Philippine posts are designated to conduct the voting activities; half of which will use automated election system (AES) to count votes, while the other half will tally the votes manually.
The two modes of voting are the following:
- Personal mode – voters need to go to their designated Philippine post to accomplish their ballots
- Postal mode – voters will accomplish the ballots sent to them thru mail, and return the accomplished ballots to the embassy
The COMELEC has posted the list of Philippine posts that will start voting at a later date due to logistical difficulties encountered in the shipment of the electrical materials. These posts are the following:
- Philippine Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand
- Philippine Consulate General in Shanghai, China (Covid lockdown)
- Philippine Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan
- Philippine Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste
- Philippine Consulate General in Milan, Italy
- Philippine Consulate General in New York, USA
According to COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez, the results of the overseas voting for national positions (president, vice president, senators, and party-list groups) would not be known until the counting has started after the end of the voting period in the Philippines on May 9.