VANCOUVER – Hoping to increase overseas voter turnout for next years presidential poll, the Philippine election authority is looking at locations in Vancouver, Toronto among cities worldwide where overseas Filipino voters may conveniently go to cast their ballot.
But the election authority known as Comelec has shunned internet and mobile phone voting in the 2016 presidential polls.
This situation is likely to result in low participation among the one million registered overseas voters who represent 10 per cent of the country’s 10 million Overseas Foreign Workers or OFWs worldwide, a media in Manila reported.
Despite this limitation, Comelec has decided to “bring the voting machines to stations outside the embassies where our overseas Filipino voters may conveniently go to vote,” Election Commissioner Arthur Lim said.
Comelec is thinking of malls and parks where OFWS could cast ballots in 2016, he said.
“The Board of Election Inspectors is now allowed to bring voting machines to certain designated ports where ships dock to allow Filipino seafarers vote,” Lim said, adding, “Vote-counting machines are now mobile — they are being sent to places where many OFWs are based.”
OFWs have been limited to vote manually in Philippine embassies and consulates, using ballots sent by the Manila-based Comelec to several Philippine posts.
The Philippine presidential and vice presidential election is scheduled on Monday, May 9, 2016. Incumbent President Benigno Aquino III is barred from seeking re-election, pursuant to the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Therefore, this election will determine the 16th President of the Philippines. The position of president and vice president are elected separately, and the winning candidates may come from different political parties.
In 2016, automated elections will be done in more areas, Lim promised.
“We hope to reach 1.5 million OFW voters after registration ends on October 31,” said Lim, adding that Comelec’s current list includes 1,197,756 registered overseas voters.
“I also hope to reach 40 to 50 per cent overseas voters’ turnout in 2016,” said Lim, adding there was 65 per cent voters’ turnout in the 2004 presidential race; but low 26 per cent voters’ turnout in the 2010 presidential elections.
There was low voters’ turnout of 16 per cent in midterm (Congressional and local) elections in 2007 and 2013, said Lim.
In 2003, Congress passed a law that allowed overseas Filipino workers to vote abroad.
But very few OFWs have shown no enthusiasm, interest, and passion to vote for presidential, vice-presidential, and congressional candidates 13 years since the law was passed.
So far, the city of Vancouver made it to the list of top 10 Philippine foreign posts with the most number of overseas Filipinos who have registered to vote in the May 2016 presidential elections.
The registration process only takes about two minutes to complete for overseas Filipinos who have applied in the overseas voting program, a short and simple process for a chance to have a lasting say in choosing the Philippines’ next president.
The Philippine Consulate in Vancouver has repeated this procedure for more than 17,000 applicants to the overseas voting, landing it in the top spot with the other Philippine posts in Canada with the highest post in terms of voter registration.
“The 17,000 is across our jurisdiction so that covers British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and north-west territories. We expect the numbers to increase further in the coming weeks,” said Consul General Neil Ferrer.
Ambassador Petronilla Garcia added, “We have been actively inviting Filipinos in Canada to register and vote, to take part in this important political process and they responded.”
As the October 31, 2015 deadline looms for the overseas voting registration, the consulate has further stepped up its campaign by going to fiestas and churches and embarking on the Akyat Barko or ship visit initiative to convince Filipino seafarers, whose ships regularly dock in Vancouver, to register.
“During their breaks, we are there so we can provide a registration for seafarers. Ang kailangan lang either a copy of their passport or the seaman’s book or yung listing ng crew members provided by the ship itself,” said Ferrer.
“The Board of Election Inspectors is now allowed to bring voting machines to certain designated ports where ships dock to allow Filipino seafarers vote,” Lim said, adding, “Vote-counting machines are now mobile — they are being sent to places where many OFWs are based.”
Canada’s Filipino community has grown to become one of the country’s largest immigrant demographics. The more than 700,000 people of Filipino descent in Canada make up one of the country’s larger diaspora communities, and this number is increasing constantly.
About half of Canada’s Filipino population lives in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with Vancouver hosting the second-largest Filipino population in Canada and Winnipeg also home to a large number of Filipinos.
Areas where Comelec may look at to set up voting machines is likely to include the central Vancouver neighbourhood bounded by Fraser and Knight streets, King Edward and 33rd avenues – which has the highest concentration of Filipinos in Metro Vancouver.
On average, Filipinos account for four per cent of all Metro Vancouver citizens. But 19 per cent of all residents in this neighbourhood of old and new houses have their origins in the Philippines, according to the 2006 census.
According to Comelec, there are 8.5 million Filipinos scattered all over the world who are eligible to register as voters.
The Commission hopes to reach at least half this number — if not in 2016, then in the elections after that. (The Filipino Post)
