Automated voting eyed for HK OFWs

For showing enthusiasm in the 2010 Philippine elections, Filipinos in Hong Kong would likely be given the first crack in using automated voting, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials said Tuesday. “Hong Kong will go automated," Ambassador Nestor Padalhin of the DFA’s overseas absentee voting secretariat (OAVS) told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. Election Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, who is in charge of the OAV, said that the automation of overseas voting would have to be tested first in at least one country per region because of the cost involved. “It’s very expensive for now," Ferrer said in a phone interview. In an automated election, the government would need to transport voting or counting machines including the special ballots overseas. Ferrer did not disclose how much the total cost of the transportation will be. The Philippine consul general in Hong Kong, Claro Cristobal, said while there is no final decision yet Hong Kong OFWs ought to be given the privilege of being the first since they have been very active in participating in the country's elections. “I’m certain that Hong Kong would be on top of their list since one out of five OAV voters are from here," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Out of the 196,344 Filipinos who registered to vote as of Tuesday, about 19,700 signed up in Hong Kong. The figure could go higher if Hong Kong-bound OFWs who registered at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in the Manila are included. Filipinos in Hong Kong have consistently been the most enthusiastic in the three OAV registrations (2003, 2006 and this year). A total of 130,000 Filipinos live and work in Hong Kong since 2007. Although Filipinos in Hong Kong have been actively participating in the OAV registration, the overall turnout for next year’s presidential elections has been dismally low. Since the OAV was signed into law in 2003, figures have not been encouraging. In the 2004 elections, only 360,000 of the more than 4 million qualified overseas Filipinos registered, according to the DFA’s OAV Secretariat. Of this figure, only 65 percent or 233,092 cast their votes. In the 2007 elections, the number of registered voters jumped to 503,000 but only 21 percent or 81,732 cast their ballots. - Joseph Holandes Ubalde, GMANews.TV