At Least 500K OFWs Likely to Take Part in 2016 Polls
MANILA: The Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) is hoping that 500,000 of the 1.4 million registered migrant Filipino voters will participate in the May 2016 elections, media reports said.
“We are also trying to beat that of the voter turnout. We are targeting hopefully at least half-a-million to vote for the 2016 elections,” Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista was quoted as saying by Sun Star.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs – Overseas Voting Secretariat (DFA-OVS), there are a total of 1,400,767 OFWs that registered in various foreign service posts, Manila Cultural Offices, and local overseas voter registration centers.
This is the first time the country has more than one million active overseas registered voters, the report said.
Comelec data reportedly showed that in the 2010 polls, a total of 153,323 out of the 589,830 registered voters took part in the overseas absentee voting (OAV), for a 25.99 percent voter turnout.
In the 2013 midterm elections, a total of 118,823 voters reportedly participated out of the 737,759 registered voters for a 16.11 percent voter turnout.
Earlier, Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim, head of the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV), was quoted as saying that they are set to implement OAV mobile voting in the next elections to be able to reach more Filipino voters.
Under the mobile voting system, members of the OAV Board of Election Inspectors will be bringing the vote counting machines (VCMs) to areas with large concentration of Filipinos, said the news portal.
The new mobile voting system is different from the usual voting taking place in Philippine embassies and consulates via manual and automated voting and mail voting, wherein accomplished ballots are being mailed to Philippine posts, reported Sun Star.