Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 22) — The low overseas voter turnout in the 2019 midterm elections was a result of failure of implementation of relevant laws, a senator said Thursday.
“You have 336,000 who voted in the 2019. That is just equivalent to two congressional districts. Therefore, two congressional districts cannot influence a national election. Therefore, the objective of RA9189, the Overseas Voting Act, and RA9225, the Dual Citizen Act, enacted 17years ago in 2003 appears not to be achieved, right?” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said during a budget hearing.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Director Sonia Bea Wee-Lozada said one of the reasons behind the low voter turnout abroad is the transient status of Filipinos overseas.
She said ballots are mailed to the addresses provided by the voters.
“Because of the highly mobile nature of overseas Filipinos, if they change their addresses, if they transfer to different places, sometimes they neglect to inform the agency or commission that they changed their addresses. This resulted to a lot of return to sender ballots,” Lozada explained.
The COMELEC said of the 1.8 million registered overseas voters, only 18.46% or about 336,000 voters participated in the midterm elections.
Drilon then asked Comelec to submit to the Senate the list of programs to increase overseas voter registration and participation.
Lozada said Comelec is planning to to encourage voters to update their addresses.
She added Comelec is also working with the Foreign Affairs department to encourage more Filipinos to register.
