Overseas ballots all set for canvassing here at the COMELEC NBOC. pic.twitter.com/CyK1b1Y8jr
— COMELEC (@COMELEC) May 11, 2016
MANILA – It’s still anyone’s game as far as the vice presidential race is concerned since there are still some 700,000 votes that have not been canvassed from the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) and have not been transmitted from some areas in the country.
According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, there are about 250,000 votes from the OAV that have not been forwarded to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) where the Comelec en banc is sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
She also reported that Maguindanao, with some 500,000 votes, has not yet transmitted due to several reasons.
“There’s still about 250,000 votes from overseas that have yet to be canvassed. I heard that the trend abroad is something like favoring some candidates but then again Maguindanao has not yet transmitted and that’s 500,000 votes and you might have special elections with 20,000 voters,” she said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
“It’s a tight race and so I can understand why Senator (Ferdinand) Marcos is really on his toes,” she added.
Based on unofficial tally of votes, the senator is second to administration candidate Rep. Leni Robredo with close to 200,000 votes margin.
On the other hand, Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez also admitted that it is a close fight between the candidates for the vice presidential post.
The poll body official opined that the OAV votes will be swing votes, noting that no one should celebrate yet and also not to feel sad.
“Oo, definitely swing votes (OAV) na ngayon ‘yan, considering na ang pinagbabasehan nila lahat ay partial unofficial results, I don’t think it’s safe for anyone to celebrate at this point, and conversely hindi naman din siguro dapat na may malungkot na ngayon,” he added.
Comelec data showed that a total of 429,802 out of the 1.3 million Filipino voters overseas have participated in the month-long OAV.
Among the posts that have not been canvassed are: Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States.