The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now anticipating a better turnout in the upcoming overseas absentee voting (OAV) after it was able to provide free postage for ballots, which will be sent via mail.
Comelec Commissioner George M. Garcia said they were able to secure a budget for postage expense in time for the start of casting for votes for overseas voters this coming Sunday.
“We were able to address that so our nationals will be able to vote through courier,” Garcia said.
“We urge them to take advantage of the opportunity [overseas voting]—the start of their voting will be on April 10 and it will end on May 9 [2022]. So that’s a month-long period for voting,” he added.
The Comelec Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) said overseas voters, who will make use of mail voting, would be provided with free postage stamps to receive and return mail ballots.
During the weekend, Comelec said it was already able to deploy 80 percent of around 1.7 million ballots for overseas voters.
Last year, Comelec said it expected a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in mail voters due to the initial lack of funding for their postage stamps.
It noted overseas voters were likely not to send back their completed ballots if they will be forced to pay for its postage.
Based on Comelec data, 29 Filipino posts abroad will make use of postal voting and use an automated election system (AES) for counting votes.
It also noted 37 posts will be using postal voting but would make use of manual counting of votes; 22 posts will require voters to personally cast their votes, which will be then counted via AES, and the18 remaining posts will hold personal voting and then count their votes manually.