The poll body’s office for overseas voters called out a Filipino who claimed without evidence that a 2022 presidential candidate is supposedly leading the elections being held abroad.
The Comelec‘s Office for Overseas Voting on April 15 informed Filipinos about the types of official ballots used in overseas voting and shared pictures of it on social media.
“Due to the limited number of Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) available, the COMELEC can only provide VCMs to Posts in countries or states with more than 6,000 land-based overseas voters,” it said on a Facebook post.
“In countries or areas with less than 6,000 registered overseas voters, the manual system (similar to the barangay elections) is used,” the office added.
The manual system is also known as postal voting, where Filipinos have to mail their ballots, which are in sealed envelopes, to the Philippine embassy in their country or territory.
Overseas voting commenced on April 10 and will last until May 9.
Filipinos based in other countries and territories are given the opportunity to vote for the Philippines’ next president, vice president, senators and a party-list representative.
A Facebook user commented on this post: “BBM is always in the lead most especially in the Middle East. Kaya make sure the votes are counted properly.”
“BBM” is the initials of presidential bet Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The office responded by informing the Filipino that Comelec doesn’t start counting the votes until after the close of polls.
“Please be informed that counting of votes that are cast during the overseas voting period happens after the polls close on 09 May 2022,” the office told the commenter.
“So there is no way of knowing who is in the lead while the overseas voting period is going. Please refrain from causing confusion or propagating false information to voters,” it added.
The response garnered 52 likes, 10 ‘love,’ six ‘haha’ and four ‘care’ reactions.
Comelec also made a similar reminder last week.
Its spokesperson, James Jimenez, said that “exit polls” are not the official tally of votes since these are counted after the elections have closed.
He also said that exit polls which are not released by a known and “reputable” survey firm cannot be reliable.
READ: ‘Not the official tally’: Comelec cautions public vs exit polls amid ongoing overseas voting
