Comelec Mulls Suspending Overseas Voting, Declaring Failure of Election in Afghanistan, Ukraine

The Commission on Elections said on Wednesday that it is planning on whether to suspend overseas voting or to completely declare a failure of elections in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

This comes as Comelec Director Sinoa Bea Wee-Lozada said in a House hearing that overseas voting will not be possible due to the mandatory repatriation being implemented in Afghanistan.

“There are two other countries that we likewise have pending reports from the DFA that we need also to declare possible suspension or even failure of elections in those two countries, specifically Afghanistan due to the mandatory repatriation,” the Comelec Director said.

Overseas absentee voting commenced on April 10 and will end on the official election day in the Philippines, May 9.

There are currently 27 registered overseas Filipino voters in Afghanistan, and 15 in Ukraine.

Moreover, Comelec has already suspended overseas voting in Shanghai, China temporarily as lockdowns in the city are in full effect following the new COVID-19 outbreak in China.

The Comelec has also suspended overseas voting in countries facing security challenges such as Algeria, Chad, Iraq, Libya, and Tunisia.

A total of 1,972 registered overseas voters have been affected by the voting suspensions.

Afghanistan is currently transitioning to a government run by the Taliban after the insurgent group swept through the country, effectively taking over the government on August 15, 2021, as they entered the capital, forcing Afghan President Ashraf Ghani along with his vice president and other top government officials to flee the country “to prevent bloodshed.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine was invaded by Russia on February 24, 2022, after months of Russian military buildup along the eastern Ukraine border, the Russian-occupied Crimea, and Belarus in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation” to “protect the people that are subjected to abuse, genocide from the Kiev regime” and to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.”

Russia has then failed to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, withdrew its forces surrounding the capital city, and resorted to focusing their offensive on the eastern part of the country, where what Ukraine calls “the battle for the Donbas” is being fought today. (GFB)