The April 10 absentee voting scheduled for overseas Filipinos in Shanghai, China will be suspended amid the ongoing lockdown in the city, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced.
The Comelec en banc approved the resolution suspending the voting in Shanghai which would affect around 1,600 Filipino voters, poll body Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said.
“Recently, we approved in the en banc the suspension of voting, this coming April 10, for the post of Shanghai,” Cascuejo said in a press briefing.
“There is an indefinite lockdown in Shanghai. Once the lockdown is lifted, then we will proceed with the voting of Shanghai,” he added.
Chinese authorities on Tuesday extended the lockdown on the city affecting 26 million people.
Cascuejo added that overseas voting in Iraq, Algeria, Chad, Tunisia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Ukraine would possibly be suspended pending the result of the poll body’s validation if these areas are capable of conducting polls. The combined voting population in the said areas is 127.
The Comelec announced that there are 1,697,215 registered overseas Filipino voters. Ronald Espartinez