An absentee voter cast her vote at Bayanihan Kennedy Town Centre Polling Centre, Hong Kong. CONTRIBUTED FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – An additional 88,500 Filipinos worldwide have registered to vote in next year’s elections, bringing to 161,153 the total number of new overseas absentee voters (OAVs), the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
In a report, the DFA said the Philippines’ 90-plus embassies and consulates abroad accounted for more than half of the new OAVs.
Philippine nationals based in the following places all over the world topped the list of registrants: Los Angeles, California; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kuwait; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Milan, Italy; San Francisco, California; Tel Aviv, Israel; Singapore; Hong Kong; and Rome, Italy.
By region, the Middle East and Africa topped the list of new OAVs, followed by the Americas; Europe; and Asia and the Pacific.
Registration centers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminals 1 and 2, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Commission on Filipinos Overseas, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration accounted for over 72,650 new OAVs.
Also on Monday, the DFA and the Commission on Elections signed a memorandum of agreement on the establishment of an OAV registration center at the Courtesy Lane Section of the foreign office’s Office of Consular Affairs at the Aseana Business Park on Macapagal Ave., Paranaque.
The 12-month OAV registration, which began on October 31, 2011, runs until October 31 this year.
The elections will be held on May 13, 2013, but absentee voters are given a longer period to vote.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario has directed the DFA’s foreign posts to intensify further the OAV registration.
In 2010, the Commission on Elections registered nearly 590,000 Filipinos as absentee voters.
According to DFA insiders, the government had failed to meet its target of enlisting one million absentee voters because “many overseas Filipino workers had to take a one-day leave at work and travel to Philippine diplomatic posts to register while some host countries prohibit assembly of foreign workers.”