Nearly half of Filipino voters abroad delisted

NEARLY half of Filipinos abroad who registered for overseas voting have been delisted, records of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) indicated.

Of the 589,830 registered overseas Filipino voters during the 2010 elections, 238,557 have been delisted after failing to vote twice as mandated by election law.

As a result, the trend may hamper the poll body's moves to reach a million overseas Filipino voters by the 2013 polls since only 347,453 have been considered as legitimate registered voters.

Besides failing to vote twice, other reasons for being delisted include issues regarding the Overseas Absentee Voting System's automated fingerprint identification that affected 3,588 voters.

Some 204 overseas voters were delisted because they registered twice. Another 49 transferred registration and 25 withdrew their registration.

Some 46 new registrants meanwhile were imported into the OAV database.

OAV registration officially began on Wednesday and will run until October 31, 2012.

"Yun drive namin is to reach a million for the 2013 polls to attain the voters. Lumiit pa kaya humahabol kami ng malaki," said Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes in a recent interview.

Owing to these developments, Brillantes added that the poll body may seek to amend the law on overseas voting to encourage more Filipinos abroad to exercise their right to suffrage.

Under the existing absentee voting law, only by personal and by mail voting are allowed. (AMN/Sunnex)