Duterte, Marcos win overseas voting

Results of the Overseas Absentee Voting shows presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte (left) and Sen. Bongbong Marcos having won the polling of Filipinos abroad. INQUIRER FILES

Presumptive President-elect Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. won the monthlong overseas absentee voting (OAV),  figures released by Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon showed.

Guanzon released the breakdown of the overseas votes on Saturday, stressing that the results were still “subject to audit.”

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez earlier said results of the OAV could swing the votes in the tightly contested vice presidential race between Marcos and Rep. Leni Robredo.

READ: Overseas absentee votes may swing poll results in VP race – Comelec | Robredo cements lead over Marcos in VP race

Data posted by Guanzon on her Twitter account showed that Duterte garnered 313,346 votes.

In the vice presidential race, Marcos gained 176, 669 while Robredo got 89,935 votes, a difference of 86,734.

As of 3:16 a.m. of May 15, 2016, the Comelec Transparency Server showed Robredo leading the race with 14,020,498 votes, compared to Marcos who had 13,802,459, or a difference of 218,039 votes.

It was not clear whether the results of the OAV—whether in part or as a whole—have been included in the tally of the Comelec Transparency Server. But on Saturday, the National Board of Canvassers said that the certificates of canvass of 58 of 59 Philippine posts abroad had been admitted.

According to the breakdown of overseas votes, Marcos trumped Robredo in 49 out of 59 Philippine posts. Robredo was the top choice of overseas voters in 10 posts: Agana, United States, Canberra, Jakarta, The Vatican, New Delhi, Yangon, Berne, The Hague, and Port Moresby.

Duterte is leading the partial, unofficial tally of votes while Marcos and Robredo are neck and neck in the race.

The Comelec said that the April 9 to May 9 overseas voting saw the highest turnout in a decade with 31.65 percent of overseas Filipinos casting their votes.

A total of 432,706 of the 1.37 million registered voters overseas cast their ballots, according to the Comelec./rga