All systems go for the overseas absentee voting on April 9, an official of the Commission on Elections said on Thursday.
Comelec commissioner Arthur Lim, who is currently in Hongkong to oversee the automated polls for overseas Filipino workers and immigrants, said that a “good turnout” of the 1,386,087 registered OAV can be expected.
Lim, the head of Comelec OAV office, appealed to Filipinos overseas to “come out and vote early” starting April 9 until May 9, 2016 instead of waiting for the last day.
According to the Comelec, 30 posts will be utilizing the vote counting machines (VCMs).
The 30 posts include Agana, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Ottawa, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, London, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Manama, Al Khobar, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv.
A total of 26 posts will be using the personal manual voting system, or the manual casting of votes in the designated polling precincts.They are Lisbon, Bangkok, Brunei, Chongqing, Dhaka, Dili, Guangzhou, Islamabad, Jakarta, Macau, Manado, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei, New Delhi, Phnom Penh, Shanghai, Vientiane, Xiamen, Abuja, Amman, Cairo, Muscat, Nairobi, Pretoria, and Tehran.
Another 26 posts overseas will adopt the postal manual voting system, wherein the ballots will be mailed directly to the registered voter, who will then mail it back to the polling center after accomplishing it.
These are Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Santiago, Ankara, Athens, Berlin, Berne, Brussels, Budapest, Geneva, Holy See, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Prague, The Hague, Vienna, Warsaw, Beijing, Canberra, Hanoi, Port Moresby, Sydney, Wellington, and Yangon.
As for the Philippine posts in Baghdad, Damascus, and Tripoli, there will be no elections to be conducted due to the prevailing conflicts in these areas.
Instead, the voters in conflict areas will be allowed to cast their votes in adjacent Philippine posts, Comelec said.