What’s behind the 2016 elections’ high voter turnout?

On the evening of election day, May 9, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that 84% of 54,363,329 Filipino voters trooped to polling precincts. This is only the second time in the last 2 decades when turnout breached the 80% mark. Some watchdog groups are suspicious of the turnout rate, seeing it as a possible indicator of cheating. But a sociologist says the personalities of the candidates may have also influenced more Filipinos to cast their ballots. Between 1992 and 2016, the highest voter turnout was during the 1998 presidential election, which the charismatic Joseph Estrada won. Around 86.1% or 29,474,309 out of 34,117,056 registered voters their ballots that election year.

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