Overseas absentee voting starts today

All is now set for the conduct of the month-long overseas absentee voting which starts today, April 13.

“We are all set for this April 13 start of elections,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) Director Elaiza David said.

“We are 99 percent ready. There is no such thing as perfect 100 percent. So 99 percent,” added David.

But there will be no overseas voting in three Philippine posts –Damascus in Syria, Tripoli in Libya, and Baghdad in Iraq. Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said this was due to the prevailing local conditions there.

David, meantime, expressed hope that the voter turnout will

be higher compared to the two previous midterm elections.

“Hopefully, our turn out will be higher than 16 percent, somewhere in the 25 percent,” she said.

Data from the Comelec-Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) revealed that the voter turnout in the 2007 and 2013 polls was 16 percent.

The Comelec said that there are a total of 1,822,173 overseas voters for this election, majority of whom are land-based workers totaling 1,779,140. Sea-based workers totaled 43,033.

According to David, most of the registered voters are in the Middle East and African Region totaling 887,744; followed by the Asia Pacific Region with 401,390; North and Latin American Region with 345,415; and European Region with 187,624.

Of the 83 countries/posts, the Comelec said 41 will be using the vote counting machines (VCM).

These are Agana, Calgary, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Ottawa, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, Brunei, Canberra, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Syndey, Tokyo, Wellington, Athens, London, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, AlKhobar,

Riyadh, and Tel Aviv.

Filipinos abroad within the jurisdictions of 42 countries/posts shall be using the manual system of voting, either through postal or personal voting.

Postal voting will be used in Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Santiago, Bangkok, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Islamabad, Port Moresby, Yangon, Ankara, Berlin, Berne, Brussels, Budapest, Geneva, Lisbon, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Prague, The Hague, Vienna, Warsaw, Abuja, Cairo, and Pretoria.

Those that will use personal voting are Dhaka, Dili, Jakarta, Manado, New Delhi, Phnom Penh, Shanghai, Vientiane, Xiamen, Vatican, Amman, Nairobi, and Tehran.

The voting period for overseas absentee voting will end on May 13.