Overseas Filipinos will no longer be required to swear under oath that they would return to the country within three years before they could be allowed to cast ballots in Philippine elections, the Commission on Elections has announced.
Officials of the Commission on Elections and the Department of Foreign Affairs have to explain how they spent the combined P148.4 million the two agencies were given for overseas absentee voting since only 15 percent of voters abroad cast their ballots in the last elections.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), began the canvassing of overseas absentee votes (OAVs) Wednesday evening as transmissions throughout the country continued to come in at a snail’s pace.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Sunday it would just ignore the lawsuit filed by civil society groups before the United Nations Committee on Human Rights over the use of the controversial precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in the upcoming balloting.
Civil society groups on Friday brought their issue with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to the United Nations, accusing the Philippine government of violating their right to vote and of turning over to a foreign entity the conduct of the technical aspect of the country’s elections.
As if to show that he was really serious about his threat to resign, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. disclosed on Friday that he had never wanted to head the poll body and had asked President Benigno Aquino III for an ambassadorship shortly after the 2010 elections.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. is considering to ask President Benigno Aquino for a diplomatic post in Eastern Europe should he resign from the poll body.
Overseas absentee voting (OAV) for Filipinos abroad opened smoothly on Saturday, except in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where voting will commence on Tuesday, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Saturday.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday said it expected the turnout in the overseas absentee voting (OAV) to more than double in this year’s elections as more Filipinos abroad start casting their ballots on Saturday.
Encouraged by the record-breaking turnout of Filipinos during the registration period last year, The Filipino Channel (TFC) is again teaming up with the Commission on Elections and the Department of Foreign Affairs – Overseas Absentee Secretariat (DFA-OAVS) to promote overseas voting for the May 13 elections.
Media giant ABS-CBN will acquire the Commission on Elections as part of the Aquino administration’s privatization program, a highly placed source in the network revealed during an exclusive interview with Outtakes.
Nearly three weeks after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) unanimously passed a resolution which Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Jr. told the press “reinstates over 238,000 overseas Filipino voters who were earlier delisted for failing to beat the deadline to manifest their intent to vote in the midterm elections,” questions are being raised about whether the Comelec is serious about implementing its resolution.
