Over 16,000 Pinoys vote on first 4 days of OAV

Over 16,000 Filipinos abroad voted during the first four days of the overseas absentee voting (OAV), most of them from countries in the Asia Pacific, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). At a press briefing Wednesday, Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco said a total of 16,879 overseas Filipinos had cast their votes from 8 a.m. on April 10 to 3:47 a.m. on April 14. "I am satisfied with the turnout because there have only been four days," said Velasco, the head of the Comelec OAV committee. A document provided by Velasco indicated that 7,258 cast their votes in the Asia Pacific; 2,891 in Europe; 2,902 in America; and 3,828 in the Middle East. A total of 4,861 Filipinos voted in Singapore and Hong Kong where the OAV is automated, the document said. There are 95,355 registered overseas absentee voters in Hong Kong, while 31,851 are in Singapore. Registered Filipino voters in countries where the OAV is still done manually were given two options: personal or by mail. Poor turnout of voters had marked the previous OAVs — 16 percent or 81,732 registered voters during the 2007 midterm elections, and 65 percent or 233,092 registered voters during the 2004 elections. This year, a total of 589,830 registered overseas Filipino voters are expected to participate during the one-month absentee voting that will end at 6 p.m. on May 10, the election day in the Philippines. Of the 589,830 Filipinos, 568,733 are land-based while 21,097 are seafarers. The regions with the biggest number of voters are the Middle East and Africa with 225,148; Asia-Pacific with 215,546; and North and South America with 66,745. Velasco said they have encountered only a few problems during the first four days of the voting abroad. On Sunday, voting was stalled for an hour in Hong Kong after a Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine jammed and rejected ballots. The Comelec blamed this on the dampness of the ballots caused by the cold temperature. – KBK/RSJ, GMANews