Overseas Filipinos win pre-enrolment extension amidst massive overseas voters disenfranchisement

PRESS RELEASE

May 6, 2025

On May 1st, Migrante Canada along with Migrante International and its global chapters attended a meeting organized by the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC). Migrante Canada raised the frustrations and challenges that overseas Filipinos have with the requirements and process of online voting. Migrante Canada asked that the period for pre-enrolment for internet voting be extended from May 7 to May 12. At that meeting, the COMELEC representative agreed that an extension was necessary.

With the reported total number of voters who have pre-enrolled and its ratio to the total number of registered overseas voters, the significantly low turnout for the midterm elections on May 12 reflects the massive overseas voter disenfranchisement.

In Toronto, Ontario and in Manitoba, under the PCG in Toronto, there is a reported total number of 29,996 registered voters, but as of April 24th, only 1,400 people have completed the pre-enrolment for the online voting. This is only 4.67% of the qualified voters!

Many are still unaware about this change in the mode of voting, from mail-in ballots to online voting. One of the results is the very low pre-enrolment turnout rate.

As of May 3rd, only 11% of qualified voters have enrolled, according to the COMELEC Office for Overseas Voting.

On May 4th and May 5th, Migrante Canada emailed the COMELEC to follow up on the discussion they had from the May 1st meeting and emphasized its demands in that letter:

1. We ask that the COMELEC extend the overseas pre-enrolment for internet voting from May 7th to May 11th, the day before election day, or even on election day itself, May 12th. No one has explained clearly why there is a big gap from the deadline to the actual election day. If it is internet voting, why impose deadlines? We ask for this extension of the deadline with the end goal of ensuring voter access and minimizing overseas voter disenfranchisement.

2. We ask that the Embassy and the Consulates General to set up consular outreach programs and mobile missions all throughout Canada to make the pre-enrolment for internet voting and the online voting itself accessible to the Filipino overseas voters, and if they have done so, to do more. Having election information reside on the government websites is a basic info service but hardly sufficient to reach out and inform our overseas voters.

The need to reach out with information sessions, complete with the demonstration of pre-enrolment and internet voting, cannot be over-emphasized. There is one Philippine Embassy in Ottawa and three Consulates General (Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary) that provide consular services to nearly a million Filipinos who live in ten provinces and three territories, in a country, which is the second largest country in the world, with five different time zones.

For the consular offices that do provide these services, we ask for more outreach to make the voter pre-enrolment accessible and doable.

3. We ask that updated statistics on the overseas elections, especially the figures for pre-enrolment for internet voting in Canada, be made available on the websites of the Embassy and consular offices. Since everything is automated, this should be easy to do and publicly make available on the website.

Today, May 6th, we learned that the COMELEC has issued a public announcement that the overseas pre-enrolment for online voting has been extended to May 10th.

Migrante Canada welcomes this extension, but we seriously question the basis for extending it only up to May 10th. If the pre-enrolment rate is significantly low, showing massive overseas voter disenfranchisement, it makes perfect sense to completely remove the deadline to allow OFWs and all qualified overseas Filipino voters to cast their online votes until May 12th.

The overseas Filipinos demand an honest and transparent Philippine election. Our voices and votes matter! 

For reference: Chris Sorio, Migrante Canada Secretary General

Email: migrantecanada@gmail.com