deadline for the period of filing of the manifestation of intent to vote until election day itself. Overseas absentee voting started on April 13, and continued until election day. Depending on the diplomatic mission, a voter may vote personally or via the mail, and via manually or via the automated system. Voting in Saudi Arabia began on April 16 after the Saudi customs refused to release the voting paraphernalia in time for April 13. Local Members of the police, military, members of the civil service and the media who had previously registered for local absentee voting voted for the Senate and party-list elections from April 28 to 30. Those which failed to vote at this period are still eligible to vote on election day itself. Out of the 18,332 voters that registered, 12,732 were found to be qualified by the commission and were allowed to vote. However, the commission said that the turnout was low; chairman Sixto Brillantes rued the low turnout, pointing out that the election was not on a presidential election year as the cause. Campaigning On January 13, the election period began. This allowed the commission to impose prohibitions on 24 activities, including a nationwide ban on guns and other deadly weapons on that day. The commission released regulations on online campaigning on January 16. The COMELEC resolution stipulated that online propaganda can only be published on a website thrice a week, and allows advertisements in the form of pop-ups, banners and the like. Campaigning via social websites such as Twitter and Facebook would not be regulated. This is the first election the commission has regulated online campaigning. The commission dramatically reduced the amount of airtime candidates and parties can use during the campaign period. Previously, the commission imposed a 120-minute airtime limit on every TV station and 180 minutes on radio stations; for 2013, the commission capped the cumulative airtime to 120 minutes on TV and 180 minutes on radio for all networks. This was a reversion on the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections, and returned to the original 2001 limit. The Fair Elections Act was not clear on whether the 120 minutes for TV and 180 minutes for radio were for every station or for all stations. The commission, in a cost-saving measure, announced on January 18 that they ruled to use plastic seals with serial numbers instead of padlocks in securing ballot boxes. Chairman