900k overseas Filipinos register for 2013 elections

A Filipino election clerk conducts the final testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines ahead of the Philippines’s 2010 National Elections for Overseas Absentee Voting at the Philippines Embassy in Singapore on April 7, 2010. The number of Filipinos abroad who have registered as overseas absentee voters for the 2013 elections has reached over 900,000, said Senator Aquilio Pimentel, chairman of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation. AFP /ROSLAN RAHMAN

MANILA, Philippines—The number of Filipinos abroad who have registered as overseas absentee voters has reached over 900,000, “the highest number so far in OAV [overseas absentee voting] history,” said Senator Aquilio Pimentel, chairman of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation.

These registered absentee voters would be eligible to vote for their senatorial candidates in next May’s elections.

In the last registration, the number reached only around 589,000, of which around 153,000 voted, Pimentel said, citing data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Pimentel said that for this year, the Comelec has recorded around 915,000 OAVs.

Though it was far from the 1 million target of the Comelec, Pimentel expressed gratitude for the various groups worldwide that have worked together to get as many registrants as possible.

“The desire of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) to register and to vote is there, the figures I cited are tangible proof of this,” Pimentel said.

He passed a bill in the Senate that will amend the Overseas Absentee Voting Act to improve the capabilities of Philippine embassies throughout the world and make it easier for OFWs to vote.