81.65% voter turnout highest for midterm polls

Over 55 million voters trooped to polling precincts to cast their votes last Monday, the highest ever recorded in the country for a midterm electoral exercise, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

- By MAYEN JAYMALIN and MARC CAYABYAB

"The number of voters who actually voted reached 81.65 percent out of the over 68 million registered voters, the highest in the history of midterm elections," Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.

"We're happy because even if it's just midterm elections, such a large number of registered voters actually voted," he said.

Voter turnout during midterm elections is usually low, hitting just around 70 percent for instance in 2019.

But last Monday's voter turnout, he said, is just shy of the 82 percent recorded during the 2022 presidential elections.

The poll chief attributed the high voter turnout to the huge number of young people who cast their votes.

He also noted a huge number of elderly voters in the first two hours of early voting, Garcia said. Three million senior citizens showed up at polling precincts last Monday.