2022 Presidential and General Election 9 May 2022

Heatwave 

2022 Presidential and General Election 9 May 2022 

The weather forecast for the election day in Manila was hot and humid, with neither a low-pressure area nor a typhoon expected. The highest recorded heat index was 51 degrees Celsius. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) advised people going to polling stations to protect themselves from the summer heat and the potential health risks it might cause (Punongbayan 2022). Moreover, there were at least 201 power outages reported. The known causes for some of the interruptions were: equipment failure (32 cases), overload (4), trees (29), lighting (3), major storm disaster (1), power supplier (1) (Crismundo 2022). It is not clear if the heatwave contributed to the disruptions. A report by Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED) shows that in the Philippines from 2019-2023 most forced outages were due to issues at fossil fuel plants (CEED Office 2024). 

Extreme heat events in the Philippines, once rare, now occur about once every 10 years under current El Niño conditions. It is stated that such frequency is influenced by the man-made climate change, with the impact of fossil fuels indicated. Warming has made heatwaves about 1.2°C hotter, with El Niño adding another 0.2°C (PreventionWeb 2024).  

Impact on electoral processes 

On the polling day, voters started lining up before the polls opened at 6 am with some voters waiting for more than four hours in the heat (Ratcliffe 2022). Electors were advised by The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) to cast their votes either early morning or late afternoon together with being recommended to stay hydrated, bring towels and umbrellas and dress lightly in regards of the extreme heat (Tan 2022). It was reported that some people fainted while waiting and that one 75-year-old voter died shortly after casting his vote (Letigio 2022). 

According to the Department of Energy, 61 out of 110 electoral commissions experienced 201 brief power outages that were immediately addressed by the commissions together with the support of public utility agencies. It was also stated that in case a pollling station lost power, the vote-counting machines (VCMs) were equipped with reliable batteries that ensure uninterrupted vote counting (Crismundo 2022). Nonetheless The Commission on Elections (Comelec) faced problems, with about 1,800 VCMs (1.8% of the total deployed units) encountering issues during the first four hours of voting, and with 168 machines being defective (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism 2022). Moreover, there were reports stating that the number of booths were inadequate(Dancel 2022). 

A civil society organisation Kontra Daya claimed that faulty VCMs resulted in 1.1 million potentially affected voters and urged Comelec to extend the voting period, nonetheless the commission decided not to do so (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism 2022). The election watch organization received reports of voters going home after being unable to wait due to long lines or the late arrival of replacement machines (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism 2022).  

Legal frameworks/ changes in procedures 

Each poling station was under the overall supervision of a Department of Education supervising officer (DESO) and two support staff – technical and health (in regards of the COVID-19 provisions). As a rule, each precinct had one vote counting machine and there were also additional machines being stored in case of breakdowns (The Carter Centre 2022).  

COMELEC did not postpone voting, claiming such a decision in general would be unconstitutional (Promchertchoo 2022; Fernandez 2021).Under Section 5 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 881, the Omnibus Election Code of 1985 (Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 1985), COMELEC may postpone an election if it determines, on its own or upon request, that serious reasons such as violence, terrorism, the loss or destruction of election materials, force majeure, or similar conditions make it unsafe or impractical to hold the election. 

Voter turnout 

There were 67,525,619 registered voters and voter turnout was 56,095,234 (83.07%). Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was elected president, polling 31,629,783 (58.77%) votes (The Carter Center 2022).