Pinoy voters in New Zealand want voting centers in major cities

Filipino voters in New Zealand are calling on the Philippine Embassy to set up voting centers in the country's major cities to facilitate overseas absentee voting (OAV) process for the 2019 midterm polls in May.

“Let the embassy have a satellite voting center in major cities—Auckland and Wellington for North Island and Christchurch and Dunedin in the South Island," Alfie Alojado Jr., 52, manager at a signage solutions company and program anchor at a community station in Christchurch told GMA News Online in an online interview early this month.

Many OFWs and Filipinos in New Zealand are active voters, but inconveniences due to great distances of the voting centers discourage some from voting, he added.

Alojado said he failed to vote during the 2013 elections because the Philippine Embassy in NZ is located in Wellington—more than 13-hour drive from where he was.

Also, he said that to vote for the 2016 presidential election, he needed to take a 55-minute plane trip.

“All voters throughout NZ must fly to Wellington just to vote. Dapat sa South Island must have two centers para maka-vote naman ang mga taga-malalayo. Ako nga, lumipad pa to Wellington just to vote,” he said.

An OFW in Christchurch, Michael John Quina, hoped for an “online option” for the OAV.

“An online option for registration and actual voting would be convenient (although this is challenging considering the risk of data breach and security). Also, an intensive campaign and info dissemination would be good so that people would register for OAV. I know some friends who wanted to vote but were unable to do so because they were not registered,” said Quina, 35, also in an online interview.

Earl Magtibay, 35, dairy farm manager in Rakaia, wishes the same system for the OAV as suggested by fellow OFWs.

“I am not sure if online registration is already available, but if none yet then that would be good. It was only when the Philippine Embassy held a mobile consular service in our area that I was able to register as an absentee voter,” he said in an through email.

According to the Commission on Elections, the OAV is set for the month of April. —LBG, GMA News