Close to 1.7 million Filipinos abroad are expected to participate in the overseas absentee voting (OAV) which is set to begin next month, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said on Tuesday.

Based on its latest data, a total of 1,697,215 are registered as overseas voters. — 1,677,631 of whom are land-based voters while 19,584 are sea-based voters.

Almost half of the overseas voters are based in the Middle East and Africa with 786,997, followed by the Asia Pacific region with 450,282 Filipino voters.

There are 306,445 voters in the North and Latin America region, while the European region has 153,491 registered voters.

According to the data, the most are female voters with 1,072,159 as against male voters at only 625,056.

Voters overseas will be voting one month ahead of the country which will begin on April 10 and will run until the election day on May 9.

Overseas voters will only vote for president, vice-president, senators, and party-list representatives. (PNA)