Over half a million Pinoys abroad poised to vote

More than 500,000 Filipinos overseas are expected to troop to Philippine polling stations abroad for the national elections beginning April 10 to May 10.

Some 589,830 overseas voters certified by the Resident Election Registration Board of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are set to choose a President, Vice President, 12 senators, and a party-list representative.

There are three modes of voting that will be employed in the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) exercise – automated mode, personal voting and postal voting.

Automated polls will only be implemented in Hong Kong and Singapore, where the OAV will start.

The Comelec said it chose Singapore and Hong Kong to use the PCOS machines owing to the large number of registered voters there, having 31,851 and 95,955, respectively.

Filipinos abroad can cast their votes in 93 Philippine embassies and consulates until May 10, the official start of general elections in the Philippines where at least fifty million are seen to participated in the country’s first-ever automated national polls.

“The overseas Filipinos are our new heroes. Beyond the economic contributions and the sacrifices they do to ensure their families of a good life, they are now also given their political right through the OAV. It is time that they exercise the right to vote,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary and OAV Secretariat chairman Rafael Seguis said.

In a joint press briefing, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Comelec urged registered overseas Filipinos voters to vote as they assured that this year’s absentee voting will be conducted in an “honest, orderly and peaceful” way.

Voting will start on April 10 at 8 a.m. (designated country time) and will end on May 10 at 6 p.m. (Philippine time).

Seguis said all votes should be received by the end of the voting period, including the ones sent through mail. Daily voting schedules will be at least eight hours a day, but embassies and consulates-general may adopt a flexible schedule to accommodate the most number of voters.

“Our embassies and consulates-general are well-prepared to conduct the overseas absentee voting process. Our personnel have undergone a three-day training in Manila last February to prepare them for their duties in this election. There were also similar trainings in Los Angeles, Madrid, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Hong Kong and Singapore to further equip our personnel in the different embassies and consulates-general of the knowledge and skills for this electoral exercise,” he said.

Seguis also reminded voters using the personal and the automated modes of voting to bring their passports or other personal identification documents to facilitate the verification of their identity.

Filipino seafarers who are approved overseas absentee voters may personally vote at the embassy or consulate-general where they are currently docked. If the area where they are docked is implementing the postal method, there should be an identified international seaport under its jurisdiction.

The counting of votes will be done at the embassy or consulate-general where they were sent or cast, which will start immediately after the close of polling precincts. The counting will be made public, continuous and uninterrupted until all the votes have been counted, Seguis said.

“We are already prepared and we have conducted already the testing and sealing of the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines. Our team is already preparing to go to Hong Kong and Singapore to see the first day of the (OAV) elections,” Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco, who heads the Comelec Committee on OAV said. –Michaela P. del Callar and Marie A. Surbano, Daily Tribune