Overseas Filipinos began to cast their votes on the first day of the overseas absentee voting for the presidential polls, Saturday in Hong Kong.
ABS-CBN News correspondent Ina Reformina reported that the automated absentee voting in Hong Kong opened at around 8 a.m. at the Bayanihan Kennedy Town Center, where all the 20 clustered precincts are situated.
The turnout on Saturday morning was quite low. The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong said it expecting this since most Filipinos' day-off is every Sunday.
The consulate said it is prepared for a higher turnout on Sunday, and has set up a system to ensure that voting is conducted smoothly.
Each precinct was blessed by priests prior to the start of the absentee voting in Hong Kong.
“Assistance is given to OFWs the moment they arrived at the center, from the verification of their precinct up to actual voting,” Reformina reported.
She added that no glitch was so far reported as far as the Precinct Optical Scan (PCOS) machines are concerned. However, the usual problem of not finding names on the voters' list still persists.
“Quite a handful of voters, who claimed they voted in the previous elections, could not find their names on the list,” Reformina said.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will verify with Comelec-Manila on the status of voters who still hope their problems can be addressed.
First voter
Radio dzMM’s Michael Vincent earlier reported that the first voter in Hong Kong was domestic helper Rowena Dela Cruz, a member of migrant workers’ group, Migrante.
Ed Malaya, spokesperson the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Dela Cruz camped out at the center since Friday afternoon.
Vincent said Dela Cruz voted Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar for president and Sen. Loren Legarda for vice-president. She also voted for Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza for senators.
Dela Cruz described the new system of voting as easy, except that care must be given in shading the oval so as not to waste a single vote.
There are over 95,000 voters in Hong Kong and 31,000 in Singapore. The two countries will experience the automated polls. The rest will use either personal or postal voting.
In Palau, Consul Vicente Bandillo of the Philippine embassy in Koror said Noel Reyes, 36, was its first voter.
Reyes is a teacher at the Palau High School. He wore a white t-shirt which bore the phrase “Ako ang Simula”.
Kontra Daya reports harassment, intimidation
Meanwhile, election watchdog Kontra Daya on Saturday noted intimidation and harassment as well as glitches a few hours after the polls opened in Hong Kong.
Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, chairperson of Gabriela Women’s Party in Hong Kong said Vice Consul Joy Banagodos allegedly harassed Gabriela members and supporters for distributing leaflets and hanging banners outside the election venue.
Tellez said the harassment was also experienced by Norman Uy Carnay of Bayan-HK.
"Since 2004, this issue has already been decided by the COMELEC, and it has always been clear that since the outside of the Bayanihan Kennedy Town Center is no longer the jurisdiction of the Philippines, leafleting (sic) and banners cannot be prohibited. Such was also affirmed by Consul General Claro Cristobal in a meeting about poll watching just last Tuesday, April 6. Even after asserting this, Vice Consul Banagodos went as far as ridiculously measuring distances of banners and campaigners from the Bayanihan’s gates,” Carnay said.
Tellez also said that they have gathered more than 140 names of voters whose names were discovered to have been deleted or were not at all included in the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters or CLOAV.
The group also complained about the accreditation of watchers, wherein a watcher had to report first to the OAV Secretariat before going to their assigned clustered precincts.
“Because shifting of watchers occurs roughly at the same time, the longer time to complete the additional accreditation measures results in a vacuum in the clustered precincts. This basically defeats the purpose of poll watching, which is to observe the whole conduct of the elections. We urge the OAV secretariat and the Philippine consulate general to consider a serious review of this new system they created,” she said.
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