MANILA, April 11 (Philippines Daily Inquirer/ANN): Absentee voting for Filipinos overseas was off to a bad start, described as “chaotic and disorganised” on the first day on Sunday in Hong Kong and delayed in North America as the ballots and other election paraphernalia from Manila got stalled in transit in Alaska.
A record 1,697,215 registered overseas absentee voters began voting for national candidates on April 10 until Election Day on May 9. Overseas voters may only vote for president, vice president, 12 senators, and a party list group.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the start of the monthlong overseas absentee voting in five Philippine foreign posts was delayed due to difficulties in shipping election materials.
Overseas voting did not start as scheduled on April 10 in the Philippine embassies in Wellington, New Zealand; Islamabad, Pakistan, and Dili, Timor-Leste, as well as in the Philippine consulates general in Milan, Italy and in New York.
“Due to logistical difficulties encountered in the shipment of the election materials, the said posts will start overseas voting at a later date,” Comelec announced on Sunday.
The start of overseas voting in the Philippine consulate general in Shanghai, China, was also suspended while the city is under a strict Covid-19 lockdown.
According to Comelec, half of the country’s 92 foreign posts would use an automated elections system.
A total 1,023,637 overseas absentee voters will vote in-person; 556,760 voters will mail their ballot, while 116,818 voters may choose either option.
Last week Commissioner in charge Marlon Casquejo said they were inclined to suspend overseas voting in Iraq, Algeria, Chad, Tunisia, Libya, Afghanistan and Ukraine, which have a combined 127 registered voters.
House probe
Filipinos in Hong Kong complained that the Philippine consular office could not accommodate the thousands who trooped to the Bayanihan Center at Victoria Road, Kennedy Town, to cast their vote.
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite on Sunday called for an immediate probe on the “chaotic and disorganized election system in Hong Kong.”
Gaite sought an immediate investigation after a United Filipinos-Migrante HK member claimed that the Philippine consular office failed to accommodate all Filipinos who queued up to avail themselves of absentee voting.
Dolores Pelaez of Unifil-Migrante said there were only five, instead of 10, vote-counting machines (VCMs) provided by Comelec to the consular office.
She added that thousands had already lined up to vote at the Bayanihan center before Hong Kong Consul General Raly Tejada announced that only 3,000 would be allowed to cast their vote.
There are some 93,000 overseas Filipino workers who are registered voters in Hong Kong.
Disenfranchisement
Gaite said he would ask the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms to summon Comelec, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Hong Kong consular office to look into the complaint.
Gaite pointed out, “We cannot allow the potential massive disenfranchisement of our overseas voters due to the ineptitude and lack of proper organizing by these officials.”
Overseas Filipino voters in North America have also expressed fear of possible disenfranchisement among their group, blaming the apparent unpreparedness of Comelec and Philippine embassies and consulates and their failure to properly disseminate information on the electoral process.
According to Migrante International, overseas voters received during previous elections their ballots ahead of the starting day of the overseas absentee voting.
“But this time, Comelec will be sending voting ballots in North America only after April 10. This is totally unacceptable and we believe it’s a deliberate move to deny our kababayan of their right to vote,” said Pelaez, also the secretary general of Migrante International.
Pelaez was referring to a Twitter post on April 7 by Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez saying: “In North America (US and Canada) where overseas voting is going to be by mail, the ballots will be sent out upon the start of the voting period. Expect to receive your ballots after April 10.”
“Overseas voting starts on April 10, 2022, but we still do not have any electronic or printed information regarding the process for overseas voting. Nor do we have our ballots,” read an open letter-petition published on advocacy platform The Action Network and addressed to Philippine Consul General in New York Elmer Cato, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez, and Comelec.
The letter-petition was signed by more than a hundred members of the Filipino American community in the United States, including human rights lawyer Ruben Carranza, poet Luis H. Francia and writer Eric Gamalinda.
According to the signatories, the delays in the transport of election materials and the general lack of timely information on the voting process was “unacceptable,” stressing that “it has the effect of disenfranchising voters,” particularly in the northeastern United States.
“It also raises reasonable concerns that the Comelec and the Philippine Consulate in New York might be intentionally and purposefully denying our constitutionally protected right to vote in this year’s elections,” they added.
With the big budget allocated for the conduct of the May 2022 polls, the overseas Filipino voters said the consulate “must already have been empowered, organized, and prepared to act as the sole enfranchising agent for Filipino voters.”
One of the signatories to the letter-petition, Grace Bejosano, a first-time overseas absentee voter in New York, said among her concerns included the period of time it would take for her to receive the ballot and mail it back to the consulate before the deadline as she cited delays in postal services due to Covid-19. - Philippines Daily Inquirer/ANN
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