Article by:
Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will discuss the possibility of allowing Filipinos in Shanghai, China to vote after the host country has lifted the lockdown due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, who heads the Comelec Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV), said the seven-man panel of the commission would tackle the matter.
"I will bring the issue before the Comelec en banc," he said in a Viber message.
Asked if the polls in Shanghai will still be conducted even though the winning candidates in the May 9, 2022 elections have already been proclaimed, Casquejo said, “We will still have to discuss this.”
Earlier, the Comelec said it would push for the holding of polls there, regardless of its effect on the results of the elections, so as not to disenfranchise any voter.
Filipino voters in Shanghai, numbering 1,991 were unable to participate in the one-month overseas voting after the Chinese government placed the city under lockdown due to the spread of Covid-19 cases.
The overseas voting period was set from April 10 to May 9.
The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, has already proclaimed the 12 senatorial winners and 55 Party-list groups.
Both houses of Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives – have also convened and proclaimed Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as president-elect and Sara Duterte as vice-president-elect.
The lockdown in Shanghai was finally lifted on Wednesday. (PNA)
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