Comelec mulls adding precincts for overseas absentee voters in Hong Kong

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will discuss on Tuesday adding more precincts for overseas absentee voting in Hong Kong amid complaints on long lines, Commissioner George Garcia said Monday.

Interviewed on ANC, Garcia said the Comelec’s post in Hong Kong was given the discretion to add more precincts but decided to set up only five.

“By tomorrow, we will have our en banc meeting and surely it will be discussed and we will push for an increase in the number of precincts in order to allow more Filipino voters to vote,” he said.

Some Filipino voters and Hong Kong authorities have called out the long lines of voters at the precincts amid the surge of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong, according to Garcia.

He said the Comelec may increase the number of precincts to around eight to 10.

Around 93,000 Filipinos are expected to participate in the overseas absentee voting in Hong Kong, Garcia said.

Aside from the additional precincts, Garcia said the Comelec will tackle during the en banc meeting the complaints that some ballots have yet to be delivered for the postal voting system. —KBK, GMA News