Migrante asks Comelec to study online registration for OFWs

Manila, Philippines -  The Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) yesterday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to study the concept of online or Internet registration to enable overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to exercise their right of suffrage as absentee voters.

In a statement, MSP chair Connie Bragas-Regalado said the use of cyber space “will hasten the process and solve the common difficulties encountered by most of the OFWs which is accessibility to designated registration centers.”

Citing records of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), she noted that only around 161,000 OFWs have applied for voter’s registration as of July 1 and this is a “dismal number in relation to the 12-million” OFWs.

“Obviously, the 161,000 plus new overseas absentee voters (OAV) comprised a small percentage of the total number of overseas Filipinos abroad considering that the system is not new and have been a component of the Philippine electoral exercises for more than a decade since the passage of the OAV law,” Regalado said.

She said there is no record as to how many out of the 161,000 new registrants will actually cast their votes.

Based on DFA reports, most of the registrants came from Los Angeles, California; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kuwait; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Milan, Italy; San Francisco, California; Tel Aviv, Israel; Singapore; Hong Kong; Rome and Italy.

She said MSP is not surprised that as per region, those from the Middle East and Africa got a good number of new OAVs compared to other regions.

“This is mainly due to our consistent OAV campaign education and information dissemination efforts on that region,” she added.

Regalado urged the Comelec to beef up efforts to reach out to migrant Filipinos.

The OAV registration started on Oct. 31, 2011 and will end Oct. 31 this year.