Comelec finishes ‘fastest’ vote canvassing, logs ‘highest’ voter turnout for midterm polls

Metro Manila, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) finished its “fastest” canvassing of votes on Thursday, May 15.

The Comelec en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), began tallying the votes on Tuesday, a day after the midterm polls.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the canvassing of votes was “historic” as it is the quickest in the election history.

The NBOC counted 175 certificates of canvass from local absentee voting, overseas posts, provinces, highly urbanized cities, and districts.

The NBOC recommended the proclamation of winning senators for Saturday.

Garcia earlier said during manual voting, proclamations took up to a month while it was shortened to up to two weeks during automated voting.

Record-high turnout

The Comelec logged the highest voter turnout for midterm polls this year at 81.65 percent.

Based on the initial estimate, 55.8 million out of 68.4 million voters cast their ballots.

Garcia said the youth drove the huge voter turnout.

“‘Yung boses nila, gusto ng sambayanan na mapakinggan,” Garcia said in a briefing.

[Translation: The country wants to hear their voice.]

“Naniniwala ako [I believe] that the vote of the youth matters talaga [really],” he added.