The Philippine government has spent much to arrange for overseas Filipinos to vote in this year's general elections and it seems to be paying off. Many overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are pleased to get the facility to enable them to select the new president and other officials to lead the country in the overseas voting centers in the Kingdom. Overseas absentee voting for Filipinos across the world started on April 10 and ends on May 10, the day their countrymen back home go out to cast their votes. “I am very happy to be able to vote in these elections,” said Jamil Yahah, a Filipino working in Jeddah. “The best thing is that the government has made arrangements for voting through our consulate,” he said. In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, Commission on Election (Comelec) Commissioner Elias.R. Yusoph said all possible arrangements have been made for the OFWs to vote in the May elections. “A three-day seminar was held in Riyadh. I have trained the officers on the procedures of conducting the election for the OFWs,” he said. However, he said the electronic voting machines are very expensive, “so it is not possible to arrange them in all overseas voting centers.” Yusoph paid a courtesy call on Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef, vice president King Abdul Aziz centre for dialogue, at his office in Jeddah early this month. Yusoph told the Saudi Gazette that there are only two countries where Filipinos can vote electronically – Hong Kong and Singapore. Yusoph came to the Kingdom to train officers at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah on the voting procedures. “The registered overseas Filipino workers are eligible to vote between April 10 and May 10, 2010. Voters have to vote manually in the voting centers in the Kingdom,” he said. “The procedure of vote casting is going on smoothly at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and a the Consulate General in Jeddah,” said Consul General Ezzidin Tago in an another interview. “The turnover until now is not that much as we expected as 37,083 Filipino workers are registered as voters but a small number of the workers are coming to casting their votes. But I think, the number will increase not only in Jeddah but also around the world (in the next few weeks),” he said. Tago said the consulate is open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. for the Filipinos to cast their votes daily, including Thursdays and Fridays.
