HK again tops OAV turnout

FIRST IN LINE. Voters wait outside the Bayanihan Centre before the start of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) on April 9. Cordillera Alliance-HK general secretary Jezelie Mendez (first from the right) waited as early as April 8 and was first in line when the polls opened (Philip C. Tubeza)

WE’RE on top.

The Filipino community in Hong Kong has recorded the highest turnout in the ongoing Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) for this year’s Philippine presidential elections.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Charles Jose said that Hong Kong had the highest number of OAV voters (5,603) who cast their ballots as of April 13.

“In second place was Singapore with 3,686 voters,” Jose told Hong Kong News.

The turnout in Hong Kong was even higher than those registered in the whole of Europe (4,524 voters) and the Americas (586).

Among the regions, turnout was highest in the Middle East (15,891), Asia-Pacific (13,709), and then followed by Europe and the Americas.

“I’m urging everyone, every Filipino voter in Hong Kong, to please come out and vote. This is our only chance to be part of history, to be part in the shaping of our country’s destiny,” said Consul General Bernardita Catalla.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has sent four more vote-counting machines (VCMs) to Hong Kong due to the high turnout and after one bogged down on the first day of the OAV, an official of the Philippine Consulate General said.

Vice-Consul Alex Vallespin said the four VCMs arrived on April 12 and were then delivered to the Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town, where polling is taking place until May 9.

Asked why the Comelec sent four when it originally insisted that 10 VCMs would be enough to serve the 93,049 registered Filipino voters in the city, Vallespin said it could be because of the high voter turnout here.

“So far, Hong Kong ang highest output sa Asia-Pacific post ng DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) in the first three days of OAV,” he said.

“If the trend continues, we will exceed 50,000 [voters] talaga. Let’s see another Sunday,” Vallespin said.

“Usually, there is a higher turnout for presidential elections because people are more interested to vote. The 2013 turnout will most likely be overtaken. Still hard to say regarding 2010 as we are only on our fourth day of voting,” Consul Charles Macaspac said.

So far, only one ballot has been “spoiled”, but Vallespin said they were trying to contact Marilyn Marasigan so she could feed the ballot again to the new VCM.

Marasigan would have been the 1,129th voter on the first day of OAV, but the VCM in Room SBO6 refused to read her ballot. After several tries, it was determined that the VCM was malfunctioning.

“Hinahanap namin si Marilyn kasi nakuha namin ang landline at phone number niya pero hindi sumasagot,” Vallespin said.

“Ang sabi ng Comelec, we have to exhaust all efforts at kapag hindi natin matrace hannggang sa weekend, the chairman of the SBEI 6 will feed the ballot to the machine in front of the poll watchers,” he added.

On the second day (April 10) of voting, at least three VCMs stopped functioning for around 15 minutes before the the voting ended for the day.

The SBEI chairpersons in rooms 8, 9, and 5 rebooted the VCMs and after several minutes, the machines read the ballots that were fed to them again.

Since the glitches in the first two days of the polls, Vallespin said no other bugs have been reported.

“We’ll see next weekend, when voters are expected to surge if the VCMs would encounter any glitches,” Vallespin said.

Meanwhile, Vallespin said a number of would be voters were unable to vote after finding out that they were removed from the list of active voters following two consecutive polls of not voting.

“Iyong iba naman, parang mali lang ang spelling ng pangalan nila sa listahan, pero kapag na-check namin sa Comelec, nakakaboto na sila agad. Naka-Viber at Skype kasi kami with the Comelec kaya madali lang ang communication.

“Minsan naman kahit wala sila sa listahan ng active voters, basta ipinakita nila sa amin iyong stub ng registration na binigay namin sa kanila, nakakaboto na din sila,” Vallespin said.

Vallespin reiterated the warning against taking out of the polling precinct the voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or the receipt issued by the VCM reflecting the voter’s ballot.

“It is the order of the Comelec to dissuade those who will try to engage in vote buying. Receipt will be issued as proof that a voter voted for a certain candidate,” Vallespin said.

He said the Comelec also ordered the DFA to immediately report seafafrers who cast their ballots to make sure they only vote oonce. Seafarers only need to present their seaman’s book to vote.