700,000 overseas absentee voters could spell difference for 15th President–TUCP

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expects some 700,000 overseas absentee voters “to significantly influence” the outcome of next year’s presidential elections.

“We are counting on over a million overseas Filipinos to sign up as absentee voters, and at least 70 percent of them to actually cast their vote. This is enough critical mass to considerably affect the selection of the next President,” said TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.

Herrera said TUCP had obtained feedback from labor posts abroad, indicating a surge in the number of overseas Filipinos, mostly migrant workers, seeking to enlist as absentee voters for the first time.

“Obviously, overseas Filipinos are eagerly anticipating the elections and raring to vote,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

He said the low absentee voter turnout in the 2007 mid-term elections was not surprising because the country’s top two posts were not at stake then.

“Next year, however, we expect (absentee) voter turnout to easily surpass the 64 percent (turnout) in the 2004 presidential polls,” Herrera said.

Herrera urged overseas Filipinos “not to give up their right to choose the country’s next leaders that offer the greatest hope for real change.”

Qualified overseas Filipinos have until Aug. 31 to register as absentee voters. The new listing began on Feb. 1.

“We have high hopes that by the Aug. 31 deadline, a little over a million overseas Filipinos will have already registered as absentee voters,” Herrera said.

“There have been improvements in the (absentee voting) system, in terms of greater information dissemination and easier listing procedures based on lessons learned from past two elections,” he pointed out.

As of June 3, a total of 92,175 overseas Filipinos had registered as absentee voters for the first time, bringing to 463,249 the total number of listed (absentee) voters.

The total would have been higher, if not for the Commission on Election’s decision to remove 132,820 absentee voters for failing to participate in the 2004 and 2007 polls.

In the 2004 presidential elections, a total of 364,187 overseas Filipinos were listed as absentee voters, but only 64 percent or 233,092 actually voted.

In the 2007 mid-term elections, a total of 503,894 overseas absentee voters were listed, but only 16 percent or 81,732 turned out to vote. –Newsbreak