Overseas voter registration breaches 1-M mark

MANILA, Philippines - Overseas voter registration (OVR) has breached the one million mark 11 years since overseas voting started, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced yesterday.

The DFA said so far there are 1,013,933 registered overseas voters for the May 2016 local and national elections.

The DFA and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) target to register one million more overseas Filipino voters for the 2016 polls.

“At the current pace of registration, we could have an overseas voter stock of over two million for the 2016 presidential elections. Attaining this goal can definitely be a game changer,” said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, who is in charge of the overseas absentee voting for the DFA.

Last month alone, the Foreign Service Posts processed 20,039 new OVR applications, an increase of 7.5 percent from May’s 18,631.

“The preparations by the department and the Commission on Elections led to a successful start for the registration process,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said.

“The challenge for overseas voter registration is to maintain the momentum by keeping the overseas Filipinos interested and engaged in this democratic process,” he added.

According to Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca, there are 12 million Filipinos overseas but only one million of them registered as voters for the May 2013 elections.

The top 10 performing Foreign Service Posts for the month of June are: Dubai (2,216), Toronto (1,373), San Francisco (1,299), Abu Dhabi (1,161), Kuwait (1,031), Los Angeles (989), Jeddah (941), New York (847), Singapore (787), and Milan (764).

 All Filipino citizens, at least 18 years old and who expect to be abroad during the 30-day voting period from April 9 to May, 9 2016, may register as an overseas voter. The registration started last May 6 and will end on Oct. 31, 2015.

Comelec holds trade fair for election technology

The Comelec is also now open to selecting new technology to be used in the 2016 elections.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes yesterday said that the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) is holding a trade fair for an automated election system (AES) on July 26. 

The law mandates the CAC to recommend to the Comelec the most appropriate, secure, applicable and cost-effective technology to be used in the conduct of elections. The trade fair would enable the CAC to acquire additional information on all available AES that the Comelec could use.

Brillantes said the CAC has to submit its recommendation before mid-August, but the Comelec is not mandated to follow the CAC’s recommendation.

“Their function is recommendatory by nature… it is not them (CAC) that will decide. The decision which technology to use is still ours,” Brillantes explained.

In the past two elections, the Comelec adhered to CAC’s recommendations to use the Optical Mark Reader system.

The Comelec earlier said that it is now open to the possibility of using a new AES to replace the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines. One of the options is the touch screen technology of Direct Recording Electronic system. – With Mayen Jaymalin