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OAV turnout now at 8.92% of 504,122 voters
Just a week before the last voting day on May 14 for overseas absentee voters, voter turnout has remained very low at 8.92% of the 504,122 registered voters. As of 5:07 a.m. on Tuesday, May 8, 2007, a tally of the OAV secretariat in Manila showed that 44,976 have cast their ballots, either personally or by mail. On 27 April, 14 days into the 30-day OAV period, 16, 104 voted or a mere 3.19% of total registered voters. On 4 May, 21 days after the absentee voting began, 31,667 or 6.2% have cast their ballots. Hong Kong has the highest turnout for personal voting in the Asia Pacific Region at 12,737 or 6.6% of the region’s 191,310 registered voters. The HK votes represent 13.2% of the territory's 96, 505 qualified Filipino voters. For those who voted by mail, Singapore has the highest number of votes cast at 2,882. For the Middle East, Saudi Arabia remains to have the highest number of voters with 10,773 but it represents a mere 4.9% of the 127, 947 registered OAVs in the Kingdom. The total number of Filipinos eligible to vote in the Middle East is 218,242. Tel-Aviv, Israel has the highest number of votes received by mail at 285 out of 3,241 registered voters. In the Americas, Athens got the highest number of personal voters at 1,147 or 4.2% turnout of the 27,240 voters. San Francisco has the highest number of those who voted by mail at 824. For Europe, Spain got the most number of personal voters with 963 or 1.98% of 48,466 registered OAVs. For voting by mail, Paris has the highest number at 329 ballots cast. Increasing turnout Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Antonio P. Villamor has reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that voter turnout in the Kingdom continues to rise. According to him, there was an 18% increase of voters during the week of April 28 to May 2, compared to the increase of 15% in the previous week. Voters continue to proceed to polling stations primarily during the weekends, with the third weekend accounting for 76% of votes cast during the entire week. “At the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, although official voting hours begin at 10:00 a.m. during the weekends, voting precincts were already open as early as 9:00 a.m. on Friday, but despite the early opening of polling precincts, the morning influx of voters still resulted in queues with voters waiting to be processed by the Special Board of Election Inspectors," Villamor said. To avoid overcrowding at the polling precincts, the Embassy posted the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV) in boards spread around the Embassy, he said. In San Francisco, California, the Philippine embassy reported that it has posted OAV reminders in places frequented by Filipinos like the Jollibee and Goldilocks outlets in Daly City, at the PNB remittance center, stores selling Philippine recordings and video, and at the Philippine center building and at the consular waiting area. UN peacekeeper Meanwhile, in Philippine Ambassador to Timor-Leste Farita A. Aguilucho-Ong has reported that the Embassy received the vote of its first overseas absentee voter, Police Senior Superintendent Col. Ruben E. Padua, Commander of the Philippine Contingent to the UN Mission in Timor-Leste. Ambassador Aguilucho-Ong said that Col. Padua cast his vote on April 30 at 2:30 p.m., and was witnessed by the Ambassador, the Consul and members of the Embassy’s Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group. Another Filipino UN Police officer, Ulpiano Lopez, was next to cast his ballot. Colonel Padua is the second highest-ranking Filipino police officer in Timor-Leste, after Police Commissioner General Rodolfo Tor. “Exactly 21 days before casting his ballot, Senior Superintendent Padua and the rest of the Filipino UN Police ensured that about 500,000 Timorese were able to cast their votes in the first democratic elections held in Timor-Leste as a sovereign nation, elections which international observers unanimously hailed as free, peaceful, orderly and credible," Ambassador Ong said. Earlier, Senator Manuel Roxas bewailed the "very low" voter turnout for OAV for the 2007 mid-term elections, saying that the 5% voter turnout on the 20th day of the 30-day OAV period is "very low" as against the 65% turnout on the last voting day of the 2004 national elections. In the 2004 national elections, 236,722 of the 364,187 registered Filipino overseas absentee voters cast their ballots. For this year, barely seven days before the last day of balloting, voter turnout has not hit 10% yet. Voter apathy In Saipan, Consul Belinda Ante said attaining a 50 percent voter turnout by May 14 seemed difficult. As of Monday, only 975 or 11 percent of the registered OAVs in the Commonwealth on the Northern Mariana Islands have cast their ballots. Although the percentage is much higher than those in other countries, the Philippine consul said it is still “disappointing(ly)" compared to the 69 turnout in the first absentee voting in the 2004 presidential elections. “I think at least a 50 percent turnout will be hard to reach this time. You can’t force people if they don’t want to vote," Ante in an interview Monday. Philippine Consulate General officials here attribute the low voter turnout three weeks into the overseas absentee voting to voter apathy, the repatriation of Filipino workers who lost their jobs in the CNMI due to business closures, and an expected surge in voting toward May 14. Philippine Consul General Wilfredo DL. Maximo said the senatorial elections are not as popular as the presidential elections among voters. “There’s nothing like the glitter of the presidential election…although we continue to encourage people to vote," Maximo told local media. Mar Masilungan, a 33-year-old computer engineer on Saipan for almost 13 years, said he voted for only three opposition senators – Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Allan Peter Cayetano. “I wanted to exercise my right to vote and I hope others will do the same," said Masilungan, who has also been helping encourage other registered Filipino voters in the CNMI to exercise their right to vote. This is only the second time that overseas Filipino workers have participated in the Philippine elections. In Cairo, Egypt, a couple from Cavite was among the early voters. Orlando and Geraldone Milana caretaker of the Nasr City residence of Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, said the election packet from the Commission on Elections was the first and only mail they received during their entire four-year stay in Egypt. Orlando, 41, said that in the last four years they never received any of the letters and photos mailed by their five children in Cavite. Geraldine, 40, said they felt privileged that overseas workers like them can now participate actively in the electoral process and make their voice heard though they are now based in Egypt. In Indonesia, election officers from the Philippine embassy go to the Sta. Theresia Catholic Church in Jakarta’s central district and the St. Yohanes Bosco Catholic Church in northern Jakarta to remind Filipinos to cast their votes and to collect the accomplished ballots mailed at designated drop boxes.
