MANILA, Philippines – Over 65.7 million Filipinos are eligible to cast their ballots in the Philippines for the 2022 elections, aside from the 1.697 million Filipinos overseas who are eligible to vote.

The high-stakes May 9 vote will determine the successor of President Rodrigo Duterte, and will usher in a new set of leaders that would be at the forefront of the Philippines’ pandemic recovery efforts.

Which places in the Philippines can deliver the most number of votes? Rappler breaks down the data we obtained from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Cebu, Cavite, Pangasinan still most vote-rich provinces

The province of Cebu retained the top spot in the list of most vote-rich provinces, with around 3.288 million registered voters, excluding Cebu City. In 2019, Cebu had 3.082 million Filipinos eligible to cast their ballots.

Cavite, Pangasinan, and Laguna, are still ranked second to fourth, as in the past elections, while Bulacan climbed one notch, swapping places with Negros Occidental, which is now ranked sixth in 2022.

Batangas, Iloilo, Rizal, and Pampanga completed the top 10.

The 10 most vote-rich provinces have a combined 20.318 million voters, or nearly one-third of the country’s eligible voter population for the May 9 exercise.

Calabarzon most vote-rich region

Region IV-A or Calabarzon still has the most number of voters among Philippine regions, increasing its count to 9.193 million in the 2022 elections, from 8.674 million people in 2019.

Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Central Visayas, and Western Visayas ranked second to fifth, same as in 2019.

Quezon City most-vote rich city

Quezon City and Manila are the only cities in the Philippines whose total number of voters each has surpassed the one-million mark.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown Davao City is the third most vote-rich city, followed by Cebu City and Caloocan.

The cities of Antipolo, Makati, Pasig, Taguig, and Zamboanga completed the top 10.

Encouraging high voter turnout

The 2019 elections saw a voter turnout of 75.90% out of 61.843 million registered voters.

While the number of registered voters in 2022 has increased to 65.745 million, the challenge now is to encourage Filipinos to go out and vote despite the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey back in June 2021 showed nearly half of Filipinos were unwilling to participate in the elections on May 9 should their barangays log a high number of COVID-19 cases at the time of voting.

In response, the poll body said it “remains confident of a sizable voter turnout despite COVID-19 fears.” – with a report from Michael Bueza/Rappler.com