Almost 5,000 OFWs pre-enroll for internet voting – Comelec

MANILA, Philippines — Almost 5,000 Filipino overseas workers pre-enrolled for the online voting and counting system (OVCS) in the upcoming midterm polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Monday.

This number is just a fraction of the total number of registered voters at 1,241,690.

But Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia expects that this will increase in the coming days.

READ: Pre-voting enrollment period for internet voters abroad starts March 10

“Almost 5,000 of our countrymen have enrolled in our link for enrollment in overseas voting for internet voting,” Garcia said in an ambush interview at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“We hope that the total number of registered overseas voters will be about the same as the number of voters who will use internet voting,” he added in Filipino.

The pre-enrollment for OVCS began on March 20.

The 30-day overseas online voting period will begin from April 13, 2025 to May 12, 2025 at 7 p.m. (Philippine Standard Time).

For the May 12 polls, they can only vote for national candidates, just 12 senators and one party-list group.