DAY 21: GO OUT AND VOTE, SAYS PCG

Another slow day at Bayanihan

Consulate officials are calling on all registered Filipino voters who have not yet cast their ballots to do so as soon as possible to avoid the last-minute crush.
The call came as the total tally for the month-long overseas voting for the 2016 Philippine presidential election inched up to 25,558 or about 28% of the total registered voters of more than 93,000.
Yesterday, 428 voters showed up at Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town to cast their ballots.
With just 10 days left before the balloting ends on May 9, Vice Consul Alex Vallespin, who is overseeing the election, fears the target of at least a 50% turnout may not be met.

Some of those whose names were not in the Comelec list

"We should have a tally of around 7,000 on each of the two Sundays left to hit out target," he said.
The highest voter tally in a single day was registered on the second Sunday of voting on May 17, when 6,367 cast their ballots.
The Consulate is hoping the total tally by the end of the voting period will hit at least 50,000.
Also yesterday, the overseas voting secretariat received more complaints from people whose names did not show up in the official list furnished by the Commission on Elections.A total of 205 people have reported encountering this problem since voting started on April 9.
Consulate staff said that about half of them were eventually given permission to vote after being cleared by the Commission on Elections in Manila.
Among those cleared were voters whose names were found in the unlikeliest place. One reportedly had his name registered in Mexico, while another found his in the seafarers' list.
Both voters said they had exactly the same problem when they voted in 2013, and were surprised that the error had not been rectified.