Classic newscaption:Comelec finishes tally of overseas absentee votes

The Commission on Elections, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, completed Monday morning the tabulation of the Certificates of Canvass on overseas absentee voting from 93 foreign posts covering 156 countries and territories across the globe.

Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos Jr. said that with the completion of the OAV tally, the canvassers would now focus on the CoCs coming from the Philippine cities and provinces.

However, the Comelec has yet to release the official canvassing results as of early afternoon. The canvassers’ latest tally made public was as of 12 p.m., May 20.

The last batch of overseas absentee votes canvassed on Monday morning came from London and Ireland.

On Sunday, the CoCs tallied came from East Timor, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, United States, Antigua, Barbados, Bermudas, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and the Bahamas.

This year's turnout for the Philippine mid-term elections was only at 15 percent of the 504, 122 registered absentee voters across the globe. From reports abroad, most Filipinos voters were reluctant to participate in the elections because of strong doubts on the credibility of the election process and amid heavy suspicions that election results would be rigged anyway.

Earlier tallies showed Loren Legarda, who made a name as a newscaster before becoming senator in 1998, on top of the "Magic Circle of 12," followed by re-electionist Senators Francis Pangilinan, husband of popular 'megastar" Sharon Cuneta; Senate president Manuel Villar Jr., a housing magnate; and, Ralph Recto, husband of popular movie actress and Batangas gubernatorial candidate Vilma Santos.

Based on the computation of newsmen covering the Comelec tabulation, Legarda was still leading the pack with 59, 151 votes from Filipinos overseas, and Pangilinan on second place with 58, 854, and Benigno Aquino III making it on the third with 48, 714 votes.

The unofficial count showed an 8-3-1 mix in the "Magic 12" in favor of the Genuine Opposition.



The canvassers tabulated the absentee votes on Saturday from Myanmar, Kuwait, Kenya, Aruba, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saudi Arabia. 

On Friday, the canvassers tabulated CoCs from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Brunei, Rome and Milan (Italy), Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Singapore, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Israel, Argentina, Sudan, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Iraq, Greece, South Africa, Lesotho.

On the first two days of canvassing on Wednesday and Thursday, the COCs tabulated came from Laos, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, South Korea, Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Palau, the Netherlands, Japan, India, Thailand, Bahrain, Switzerland, New Zealand, Cook Island, Fiji, Australia, Vietnam, Belgium, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Mexico, Iran, China, Romania, France, Monaco, Portugal, Taiwan, Hong Kong/Macau, Yemen, Cyprus, Ankara, Spain, Morocco, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Libya, Lebanon and Nigeria, with Hong Kong giving the biggest number of votes of close to 20, 000.

No vote was cast in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Monaco, Mali, Algeria, Chad, Malta, Mauritania, Tunisia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo and Senegal. - 

Classic newsclipping caption:26 Countries Got 0 Votes in Overseas Absentee Voting

Filipino voters in 26 countries did not vote in the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) of this year’s midterm Elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) disclosed this during the canvassing, where no one of the 710 registered voters of the 26 countries covered by postal voting exercised their right to suffrage as Filipinos.

The countries are: Columbia, Netherlands, Suriname, Venezuela, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, Burundi, Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Zambia, and Macedonia.

According to Comelec-Committee on OAC, these countries do not have Philippine embassy or consular offices and they are mostly far from the Philippines posts where they are supposed to send their postal ballots.

Aside from the geographical locations of these countries, the cost of mailing the ballot could also be the reason why the voters did not participate in the elections.

Also some of the voters did not update their registered address because their records were not updated.

The OAV is a month-long event where the voters can get to vote senatorial and party-list candidates.

Only 150,000 voters cast their votes from the 737,759 registered voters from some 227 Philippine posts around the world.