2016 Overseas Voting Hits Milestones: DFA-OVS

MANILA – The conduct of the 2016 Elections was an ‘unmitigated success for overseas voting’, the Department of Foreign Affairs-Overseas Voting Secretariat (DFA-OVS) said on Tuesday.

The DFA-OVS said that one of the milestones for overseas voting was attaining the goal of having a million active registered voters.

The 2016 Elections for Overseas Voting had 1,376,067 active registered voters after purging the list of double registrants and those who failed to vote twice in two consecutive elections.

In terms of voter turnout, the 2016 election cycle overseas continued to set new historical milestones. The over 432,000 overseas votes that were cast more than tripled the 118,823 of 2013; almost tripled the 153,323 of the 2010 Presidential elections; and practically doubled the 2004 record high of 233,137.

“These game-changing historic achievements are the result of the collective efforts of the dedicated hardworking men and women of our Foreign Service Corps, Commission on Elections, and our media partners,” said DFA-OVS Chairman, Undersecretary Rafael Seguis.

The DFA-OVS said the closely contested Vice Presidential race also highlighted the importance of the overseas Filipino vote.

“Politically empowering the overseas Filipino continues to be a work in progress, DFA-OVS looks forward to a more in-depth analysis and assessment of the 2014-16 election cycle when the dust settles. Lessons learned from this cycle will provide guidance on how to set new milestones for the coming electoral cycle which will once again begin with voter registration in 2017,” Seguis added.

(Source: ABS-CBN.com)