Comelec hopes for 50% OAV turnout in upcoming polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is hoping that at least half of the almost 590,000 Filipino registrants abroad would vote in the May 10 automated elections.

"Based on history, [voter turnout is] very, very low. We hope makakakuha tayo ng (that we would be able to get) 50 percent, at least," Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco, head of the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) committee, told reporters in an interview.

In the 2004 national elections, only 360,000 of the more than four million qualified overseas Filipinos registered. Of this figure, only 233,092 or 65 percent cast their votes.

In the 2007 midterm elections, at least 145,000 more overseas Filipinos registered to vote, but only 16 percent or 81,732 cast their ballots.

There are almost 589,830 overseas voters registered for the 2010 polls, with 138,113 postal voting by mail and 451,717 voting personally.

The commission was earlier planning on automating the elections in Hong Kong and Singapore, but these plans has since been stalled because of certain disagreements with Philippine posts onsite.

Velasco said they had decided to automate the polls in Singapore and Hong Kong based on the number of voters and the feasibility of holding automated elections there. Singapore has 31,851 voters while Hong Kong has 95,355. Combined, they make up 20 percent of the total number of overseas voters.

The voting in these countries, although probably automated, will still be conducted for a whole month until May 10, election day in the Philippines. Velasco said they would only print out the election returns on the last day.

Unlike the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that will be used in the country, the units to be used for OAV would be able to handle 5,000 voters a day, Velasco said. A normal PCOS unit to be used in the May polls is expected to be able to handle about 1,000 voters. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMANews.TV

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