By Daisy CL Mandap
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| About 1,600 people cast their votes Friday (Photo from ConGen Raly Tejada's FB page) |
Friday delivered an unexpected surprise in the ongoing
overseas voting in Hong Kong, when around 1,600 Filipinos turned up to cast their
ballots at the Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town.
The renewed weekday surge pushed the total turnout in
27 days of voting to 53,500 - or more than 57% of the total registration figure
of 93,625.
If the current trend continues, and with three days
left in the voting – including a Sunday and a statutory holiday on Monday - the
total turnout could well pass the 60% mark, far higher than the 49% set in the
last presidential vote in 2016.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
The recent spike in the weekday turnout started on Thursday, when members of the Iglesia ni Cristo known for bloc voting, began trooping to Bayanihan after the church hierarchy publicly endorsed their chosen candidates in the election.
The Sunday and Monday voting tally could also boosted by those whose names were mistakenly excluded from the Certified List of Voters but recently received approval from the Commission on Elections to cast their votes.
Among them is Liezel Lao who was in grief after being
told that her name was not in the CLOV, hours after she queued up with
thousands others on the first day of voting on Apr 10.
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Lao, who had kept her registration receipt which
clearly showed she had registered at the Consulate on Aug 29 last year,
immediately asked the OV Secretariat to get Comelec to allow her to vote.
She kept following up afterwards, fearful that she
would not be able to vote anymore as she had only one day-off left before the
May 9 close of the polls. Finally, with just four days left in the election,
she got word from the Secretariat that she could already vote.
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| PRESS FOR DETAILS! |
“Please be informed that the Comelec allows you to
cast your vote until 09 May 2022. Kindly proceed to the Secretariat in the
Bayanihan Centre and you will be endorsed to SBEI 10,” said the notice.
To this, Lao replied, “Thank you so much! Good luck
and God bless. I am so happy makaka vote na ako.”
Voting on the last day will be held from 8am until
7pm, when all the polling places across the Philippines will close at the same.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
More than 67 million Filipinos have registered to vote
in the election where the top contenders for the presidential post are Vice
President Leni Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
