Over 400 Pinoy voters in Singapore cast ballots on 1st of 30-day OAV

A total of 433 Filipinos cast their ballots in Singapore on the first day of the month-long overseas absentee voting (OAV) for the Philippines' May 2019 midterm polls.

But the Philippine Embassy in the Southeast Asian OFW host country told GMA News the number could triple during Sundays, in which most foreign domestic workers take their day off.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) schedule indicates OAV will end on May 13, in time with the Election Day in the Philippines.

An OFW casts her ballot in Singapore during the first day of overseas absentee voting at the Philippine Embassy in Singapore.

OFWs in Singapore cast their ballots for the OAV 2019.

Philippine Embassy officials in Singapore recalled that in the 2016 presidential polls there were 86,000 voters on the list, of which more than 40,000 or 50% turned up to vote.

But for the 2019 polls, the list sheds off some 10,000 active voters —from 86,000 in 2016 to 76,000 in 2019.

According to First Secretary and Consul J. Anthony Reyes, “The current lower number of active voters may be due to the large number of inactive users that were de-listed from the Certified List of Voters or when a voter did not vote for two consecutive elections, his/her name is removed from the list. Another reason is that many Filipinos [may] have left Singapore for good and did not re-activate their record.”

Compared to the hybrid format of the 2016 elections, in the 2019 polls Comelec has mandated that all embassies and consulates conduct postal voting.

Consul Reyes said postal voting meant “The ballots are prepared as mailing packets. And the intention is for the mailing packets to be mailed to all registered voters. However, with the specific conditions of Singapore, maliit na city-state, and the embassy is accessible to all the voters."

"So there is the option of voters coming here to personally pick up their mailing packets rather than having it mailed to them. Once the voter is verified to be a registered voter, the mailing packet is given to [him/her],  and they can fill it out here on site. Pero after filling out the ballot, it is sealed in the mailing packet and into the ballot box,” Reyes added.

This has been the case with hybrid absentee voting in 2016. But even then, only 2,000 voters opted to mail in their ballots. The same case in the 2019 election where the Singapore-based Filipino voters prefer to forgo voting in the comfort of their homes to cast their votes the traditional way," he noted.

At the moment, Reyes said, there are only 1,300 requests for postal voting. Although he expressed hopes the number will still increase as it is only the first week of the 4-week OAV.

“Those interested to vote through post can request this from the Philippine Embassy-Singapore website. requesting parties will need to sign up and validate their addresses. The deadline for this has been extended from April 15 to April 30.”

According to him, the system can address the tendency of Filipinos crowding the voting precincts in the last few days of the polls.

He noted that the last two weekends of the 2016 elections were heavier-than-usual and local Singapore authorities were concerned that the queue might spill over outside the Philippine Embassy. But this was effectively managed by making sure there was a quick turnover of voters.

Meanwhile, Consul Reyes said, “We are expecting 76,000 voters to come here over the next 30 days but we are prepared for it." —LBG, GMA News