2019 polls voter turnout now at 75%-78%

MANILA -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is nearing its estimate of between 75 percent and 78 percent voter turnout in the recently-concluded national and local polls.

In a press briefing on Monday morning, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said that as of Sunday, the partial number of voters who participated in the May 13 polls is already at 75 percent or more than 46 million registered voters.

“As of May 19, 2019, so far, a total of 46,343,423, or 74.89 percent voter turnout for electronically transmitted Certificates of Canvass (COCs),” Jimenez said.

As of Sunday evening, the Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), has canvassed 162 out of the 167 COCs.

“The NBOC has canvassed 97 percent of the total COCs, manual and AES (automated election system), overseas and local,” he added.

Votes from five areas with more than 1.6 million registered voters have yet to be canvassed -- Isabela province, 1,050,681 voters; Japan, 76,166; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 326,620; US (Washington DC), 228,472; and Abuja, Nigeria, 1,999.

Jimenez said the COC from Isabela is expected to be transmitted Monday evening, after the conduct of special polls in five precincts of the province.

“The special polls there have started and 368 voters out of the 762 registered voters have already cast their votes as of 10 a.m.,” he added.

The special election in Jones, Isabela was approved by the Comelec en banc, after armed men burned a vote counting machine on May 13.

Jimenez also reported that the voter turnout for local absentee voting is at 77.08 percent or 22,602 people who actually voted, out of the 29,326 registered voters.

The local absentee voting was for held for personnel of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, other government employees, and members of the media.

Meanwhile, preliminary data from the Office for Overseas Voting show that the voter turnout is 20.66 percent or more than 21,000 voters.

“Voter turnout for manual election: 20.60 percent or 21,368 (31 jurisdictions),” the poll body said.

The country has a total of 61,843,771 registered voters while there are 1,822,173 Filipino voters overseas.

Earlier, the poll body said that at least 46 million out of the more than 61 million registered voters were expected to participate in the mid-term polls, which is lower than the 81 percent in the 2016 presidential polls.

In the mid-term polls, voters elected 12 senators, one party-list group, one governor, one vice governor, provincial board members, one mayor, one vice mayor, and councilors. (By Ferdinand Patinio )