Comelec misses 1-M OAV registrants target by ‘a mile’

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has again failed to achieve its eyed number of new registrants for the overseas absentee voting (OAV) for the national elections next year, missing its target of 1 million by a huge margin.

By the Comelec’s last count, merely 204,720 first time Filipino voters abroad had enlisted for the OAV, or barely 20 percent of its 1 million aim.

The figure is lamentably even lower than the number of registrants in the OAV list-up in 2004 and 2007, where more than 500,000 and 300,000 had registered, respectively.

But despite the low turnout of registrants, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body had no plans of extending the registration period for the OAV, which had ended last Aug. 31 after beginning six months earlier on Feb. 2.

Jimenez said the Comelec needs to strictly adhere to a timeline it had set for the simultaneous national and local elections next year, to have sufficient time to prepare for the automated polls.

“There will be no extension in the OAV and local registrations. The deadline was set for a reason and the reason was for the preparations for the elections, for the allocation of the ballots…The deadline that was set was the maximum allowable time. We cannot afford, in terms of time, to extend it,” he said.

The country is, for the first time ever, set to hold automated elections next year after having been used to manual polls in the past.

Earlier, Filipino migrant workers group Migrante International had asked the Comelec to extend the registration period for the OAV until the end of the year in order to give Filipino first time voters abroad more time to register.

Migrante pointed out that for the 2007 polls the Comelec provided 13 months for Filipinos overseas to register for the OAV while it merely gave six months for new registrants this year for next year’s elections.

“OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) have only one day-off a week, so practically we were only given 28 days to register for the 2010 elections. We reiterate our appeal to the Comelec to give us more time so that we can participate in choosing the next national leaders of our country this coming elections,” Migrante secretary general Gina Esguerra said.

The group suggested for the Comelec to hold a special registration up to Nov. 20, which is the eve of the scheduled date for the filing of candidacy on Nov. 21.

“OFWs deserve to be given a second chance to exercise their right to vote, and all we are asking for is an additional two months period which is still shorter than what the Comelec had given us before the 2007 elections,” Esguerra said.

Jimenez, though, said Migrante should file a formal petition with the Comelec for the poll body to study and consider.

“Migrante should formally file a petition with the Comelec instead of going to the media. What I am saying is, if there is a formal petition, we will hear it. But as of now, we really cannot afford to have an extension,” he said.

Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Comelec said the registration for the OAV can not be extended because of the poll automation system, which requires early uploading of all registered voters to the poll body’s data base.

In 2003, a total of 361,457 Filipinos registered for the OAV for the elections the following year, and in the 2005-2006 OAV registration, 142,667 enlisted, bringing the total to 504,124.

Of this number, the names of 132,820 voters were deleted from the National Registry of Overseas Absentee Voters of the Comelec for their failure to vote in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

With the balance of 371,304 and the 200,637 new registrants, there are a total of 571,941 overseas Filipinos eligible to vote in the May 2010 national and local elections.

In the last two elections in 2004 and 2007, the top 10 Philippine embassies and consulates that had notched the highest number of registered voters were Hong Kong (19,691), Los Angeles (11,981), Dubai (11,219), Singapore (9,921), Riyadh (6,120), New York (5,687), London (5,478), Tokyo (4,913), Toronto (4,734), and Jeddah (4,392). Closely behind were Washington D.C. (4,016), Abu Dhabi (3,945), Chicago (3,717), Brunei (3,661), and Kuwait (3,252) while another 8,464 OFWs registered at the Manila Economic and Cultural Offices in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung in Taiwan.

Notably, as in the past, Filipinos in the United States topped registrants for the OAV this year, with 29,785 having enlisted.

Meanwhile, Jimenez said the Comelec has come up with a draft ballot design for the elections next year. He said it is 20 inches long and can accommodate 300 names on the front and back.

“We deem that should be enough to achieve its purpose,” he said.

Jimenez, however, said the Comelec still plans to hold public consultations regarding the design of the ballot to get the collective opinion of the members of society who are of voting age. –Marie A. Surbano and Michaela P. del Callar, Manila Standard Today