Election paraphernalia delivered to Philippine consulate general in HK

HONG KONG —The Philippine Consulate General received 10 vote and counting machines and ballot boxes on Tuesday morning, more than a month before the overseas absentee voting begins on April 9.

The OAV voting will close on May 9, the same day the regular national and local polls are to take place in the Philippines.

At present, there are 93,049 total registered Filipino voters in Hong Kong.

Vice Consul Alex Vallespin had said they expect that, at least, half of the total number of registered voters in the city will cast their votes during the month-long election period for the OAV.

Earlier, the Comelec said it is targeting an 80-percent OAV turnout.

For the OAV, the foreign office in Hong Kong will use the Bayanihan Center in Kennedy Town as polling place. 

However, it said it is still awaiting the arrival of the official ballots.

Meanwhile, the Comelec began printing the official ballots last February 15. It set the last printing day for April 25.  

On the other hand, a report by the Department of Foreign Affairs-Overseas Voting Secretariat indicated that as of October 2015 there were were a total of 1,301,598 active registered overseas voters for the 2016 polls.

The number is broken down by region as follows: there are almost 550,000 active registered voters in the Middle East and Africa, about 250,000 in the Americas, about 150,000 in Europe, and 320,000 in Asia and the Pacific.

Seafarers who registered as overseas voters number about 30,000, the DFA-OVS added. — LBG, GMA News