By Vir B. Lumicao
Consulate officials say they are not
optimistic that the 80% turnout set by the Commission on Elections for overseas
voters in the April-May general elections could be achieved.
A total of 93,049
Filipinos in Hong Kong have been certified by Comelec as eligible to vote, but
judging from past elections, at least a third of that number may abstain.
The voting number is
expected to be augmented by historically 1,500 to 2,000 seafarers casting their
votes in Hong Kong.
“I mentioned in the
update I sent to Comelec that our target turnout is 50% of the total registered
voters, but Manila is imposing an 80% turnout,” Vice Consul Alex Vallespin, who
oversees the election for the Consulate, told The SUN.
“Let’s see (if that’s
possible), because our highest turnout ever was in 2004, when we almost reached
70% for the whole overseas voting,” Vallespin said.
As in the past, the
number of voters would be divided equally among the 10 special board of
election inspectors that would be made up of a chairman and two members each.
Training will take
place on Apr 5-7 for the 30 people who will comprise the 10 SBEIs that the
Comelec had asked the Consulate to form, Vallespin said. The chairmen would
come from the Consulate and its attached agencies like the Social Security
System.
Only eight SBEI members
were recruited from the Filipino community while the remaining 12 will be Hong
Kong-based dependents of Consulate staff, said Vallespin.
“We haven’t imported
anyone from the Philippines,” he said.
Vallespin said a team
from the Comelec would be coming over to train the SBEI members on their role
in the coming elections, particularly on how to operate the vote counting
machines at the opening, closing, daily closing and final closing of the
voting.
He said the VCMs are
basically the same as the controversial PCOS (precinct count optical scan)
machines used in previous Philippine elections. The main difference is that the
VCMs are bigger and broader, he added.
Comelec teams will
visit posts with automated election systems to train the SBEI members, but for
those where manual counting still takes place, the SBEIs will go to Manila to
train on their roles.
Preparations for the
coming elections, which will be held at the Bayanihan Center in Kennedy Town,
were discussed by the Consulate with Filcom leaders in a meeting on Feb 15.
Heavy turnout of voters
is expected on the five Sundays starting April 10 to May 8, especially on May 1
and 2, the latter having been declared as a statutory holiday.
The Bayanihan polling
precincts will open at 8am and close at 4pm on the first day of voting on April
10, and at 9am to 5pm on subsequent days except for the last day on May 9, they
will stay open until 7pm.
