Highest overseas voter turnout in HK recorded Sunday

Over 5,000 Filipino voters trooped to the voting center in Hong Kong on Sunday, the highest voter turnout so far since the overseas absentee voting (OAV) started last April 10. Vice Consul Val Roque of the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong said in an e-mail sent to GMANews.TV that 5,466 registered Filipinos went to the voting center in Bayanihan Kennedy Town Centre on Sunday to cast their votes. As of 6 p.m. Sunday, 11,495 Filipinos have voted in Hong Kong - or more than 12 percent of the 95,355 overseas voters there - since April 10. Union of Filipinos (UNIFIL) in Hong Kong secretary General Eman Villanueva, whose group is an accredited poll watcher, said there were also no reports of malfunction in the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. On April 11, two PCOS machines were reported to have rejected ballots and stalled the recording of votes for as long as two hours. Villanueva, however, said they were 200 Filipinos in Hong Kong who were unable to vote since April 10 because their names were not on the certified list of overseas absentee voters. “Some of the voters have been complaining that they can‘t find their names on the list. These Filipinos has voted in the previous elections, so they believe there is no reason for them to be de-listed," Villanueva told GMANews.TV. He added that their group continues to encourage Filipinos to participate in the elections to be able to reach the target voter turnout of 50,000. “On the average, more than 1,000 votes are recorded daily. If this will not increase, we’ll only have over 30,000 votes cast," he said. Based on UNIFIL’s discussions with Filipino groups in Hong Kong, there is “widespread pessimism" among voters, especially in light of cases of fraud in previous elections, according to Villanueva. Some voters also said they would not be able to vote as the voting center is too far from their place and would entail high transportation costs, he added. “Nevertheless, we continue urging them and telling them that while fraud is still possible in this year’s elections, the answer should be increased vigilance and not simply refusing to vote," Villanueva said. Only Hong Kong and Singapore are using PCOS machines for the automated counting of votes. The OAV in over 90 other Philippine Embassies and Consulates General across the world are using manual and postal voting. The OAV will last until May 10. Overseas voters are given the opportunity to elect the next president, vice president, 12 senators and one party-list representative. - KBK, GMANews.TV