INC, JIL, Migrante tapped for OAV registration

To be able to reach its 1 million target voters for the overseas absentee voting (OAV), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is planning to tap religious organizations and a migrant workers group to help it entice Filipinos overseas to register for the national polls next year.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body is set to ask the Iglesia ni Cristo, the evangelical group Jesus Is Lord Movement (JIL) and the Migrante International for help in promoting the OAV registration.

“We will be sending letters to the leaders of the aforesaid churches and the migrant workers group to help us promote the ongoing OAV registration and to ask them to encourage their congregations, chapters and members abroad to register for the polls,” Jimenez told media.

“In order for us to achieve our goal of 1 million OAV registrants for the May 10, 2010 elections, we need the help of Filipino groups and religious organizations to encourage the widest number of our kababayans (compatriots) abroad to exercise their right to vote,” Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said.

He said the Comelec needs all the help it can get to be able to achieve its 1 million target registrants before the registration period closes on Aug. 31. The registration for the OAV started last Feb. 2.

As of June 26, the Comelec said there were 115,635 applicants for the OAV, but only 17,061 have been approved.

Since 2004, the Comelec has been setting a target of at least 1 million registrants for the OAV, but has always fallen short of that goal. –Marie A. Surbano, Daily Tribune