Comelec allows consulates to conduct field registration for OAVs

Permission has been granted for Philippine consulates to conduct field registration for overseas absentee voters (OAV) in the country they are in.

“We granted the authority for them to go to mall for mobile registration and field registration to increase the number of new registrants,” said Commissioner Lucenito Tagle of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The Comelec is looking to register some 1 million OAVs for the 2016 local and national elections.

Tagle, who chairs the Comelec committee on OAV, said consulates need approval from the poll body before they could conduct mobile registration.

“They are conducting field registration but with our approval,” he said.

Among the consulates who have requested permission from the Comelec are those in  Qatar, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and New York in the United States.

Tagle said mobile registrations are being conducted in areas with a large concentration of Filipinos.

The OAV registration started last May 6, and will run until October 31, 2015.

Based on Comelec records, there are 737,759 registered overseas voters from some 227 Philippine posts worldwide, excluding 238,557 voters who were de-listed for failing to vote during the 2007 and 2010 elections but were later reinstated by the poll body. —KBK, GMA News