Government tagets 1M absentee voters

The government is targeting at least one million new overseas absentee voters for the national polls in 2010, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The government, however, is far from reaching its projected goal due to the low turnout of registrants with only four monts to go before registration closes in Philippine embassies and consulates.

To date, only 50,122 Filipinos in various countries have registered with the DFA’s diplomatic missions, DFA Undersecretary and Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat (OAVS) chairman Rafael Seguis said.

“The OAVS has issued a series of instructions to all foreign service posts to strengthen their strategies in order to garner one million OAV registrants for the 2010 national elections,” Seguis said.

Based on the latest tally received from various Philippine embassies, missions, consulates and offices, the Asia-Pacific region had the most number of voter registration with 13,136 followed by the Americas with 12,342, Europe 7,298 and Middle East and African 5,756.

A total of 11,590 overseas Filipinos workers have also registered at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport before they left for abroad.

Seguis said the top 10 posts, in terms of the number of new registrants are: Hong Kong (4,917), Toronto (2,322), Singapore (2,232), Dubai (1,856), New York (1,743), Washington DC (1,541), Brunei (1,365) and Chicago (1,182).

By country, the United States grabbed the top slot with the most number of registrations then China, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Taiwan, Japan and Brunei. –Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune