Consulate Prepares Video Tutorial for Filipino Voters

Dubai: The Philippine consulate in Dubai is currently working on a two-minute video aimed at teaching voters how to cast their votes using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the presidential elections beginning on April 9.

The video will feature the consul-general along with some children to drum up interest in the polls and increase voter turnout, Gulf News quoted Consul Ferdinand Flores as saying.

Automated voting is being held in the Middle East for the second time, six years after automated elections were conducted in the Philippines.

During the 2013 elections, only 6.35 per cent of the 55,842 registered voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates voted.

“The children should encourage their parents to vote because the decision that the parents will be doing this time — casting their votes — will affect their future. At the same time, we want people to behave like they’re a voting bloc,” Flores said.

The video tutorial will be played at the consulate and shared on its social media accounts to reach as many voters as possible, Flores was quoted saying by the Dubai-based news portal.

The consulate currently has 12 PCOS machines to cater to the 122,185 registered voters from Dubai and the Northern Emirates for the 30-day election period from April 9, he added, saying,

“We will be going around Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah to seek them [voters] out. We will bring the polling machines to them so they won’t have to come to us. This means they have no excuse anymore not to vote.”

Aside from being open at the weekends to accommodate more voters, the consulate will implement a split timing, meaning they will open in the morning, have a break in the afternoon and open again in the evening to allow Filipinos to vote after work. The final timings will be announced next week.

Flores also urged voters to collect their voter’s ID cards at the consulate. Some 80,000 IDs are ready for collection but only about 1,000 have been collected, reported Gulf News.

(Source: FilipinoTimes.ae)