By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

REGULAR voters in the Philippines go to the polls today to elect more than 17,000 candidates for various positions nationwide, while absentee Filipino voters on Guam have until 5 p.m. today to turn in their ballots at the Philippine Consulate in Tamuning.
Positions at stake at the midterm elections are those of 12 senators, 230 members of the House of Representatives including party list representatives, hundreds of governors, vice governors, provincial board members, mayors, vice mayors and councilors.
Under the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, however, absentee voters may only cast votes for senators and party list representatives.
The 30-day voting period started on April 14, but it wasn’t clear at press time how many absentee voters on Guam, out of the 600 (not 6,000 as earlier reported) certified by the Philippine Commission on Elections, have turned in their ballots to the consulate.
The Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. has adopted voting by mail throughout the U.S.
The casting of votes in the Philippines ends at 3 p.m., or 5 p.m. Guam time.
According to the guidelines issued by the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., “ballots not received before the close of voting on the day of elections shall be considered invalid.”
The Special Board of Election Inspectors at the Philippine Consulate will start counting the votes immediately after the close of voting.
According to the embassy guidelines, the Special Board of Canvassers for all U.S. posts, except Saipan, will meet at 6 a.m. EST today at the Romulo Hall, Embassy of the Philippines in Washington, D.C. to receive the election returns and to immediately canvass those that have already been received.
“The board shall meet continuously from day to day until the canvass is complete. The proceedings of the board shall be open and public,” according to the embassy.