Overseas voter registration sees highest rate of increase

By: 10 years ago

Overseas voting registrants await their turn at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco. INQUIRER.net PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Global overseas voter registration for August rose by more than 50 percent, the highest rate of increase since overseas registration started May for the 2016 presidential election cycle.

Overseas voter registration increased from 24,366 to 37,479 over the July 2014 monthly tally, the Overseas Voting Secretariat (DFA-OVS) reported September 5.

This sets a new milestone for this period by bringing the four-month total of new overseas voter registrants to 101,351.

Last June, for the first time in its 11-year electoral history, Philippine overseas voting, breached the one million mark. As of September 5, total overseas voter stocks stands at 1,076,524.

“At the current pace of registration, we could have an overseas voter stock of over two million for the 2016 Presidential elections,” said Office of Civil Security and Consular Concerns Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis, who chairs DFA-OVS. “Attaining this goal can definitely be a game changer.”

The August tally broken down by region is as follows:

Foreign Service Posts in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) yielded 20,079 new overseas voter registrants.

From the Americas 7,242; Europe 4,278; Asia Pacific 3,540 (2,340 from Philippine Overseas Voter’s Registration Centers).

The top ten FSPs are Riyadh (7,916), Abu Dhabi (3,420), Dubai (2,805), Jeddah (2,332), San Francisco (1,655), Singapore (1,193), New York (1,076), Los Angeles (1,034), London (887), and Toronto (813).

Almost fifty 54 percent of last month’s production came from foreign service posts in Middle East and Africa. They attribute their success and enhanced performance to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ issuance of Foreign Service Circular No. 160-2014, which integrates overseas voter registration with the passport renewal process.

“The preparations by the Department and the Commission on Elections led to a successful start for the registration process,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a letter.

The Foreign Service continues to outperform itself with their record breaking pace despite the suspension of overseas voter registration activities at the various hotspots which includes Libya, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and the Gaza strip in view of the deteriorating security situation thereat.

Another challenge confronting the foreign service posts is aging voter registration equipment, which constantly malfunctions.