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Sunday, April 15, 2007
Overseas Pinoys start absentee voting for senators
MANILA -- Philippine officials opened balloting Saturday for midterm congressional elections to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos living abroad.
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
The monthlong polls for overseas Filipinos will run to May 14, when Filipinos at home then cast their votes nationwide, officials said.
Under the absentee voting law, overseas Filipinos will choose 12 senators and one sectoral party for the House of Representatives during mid-term elections.
Sectoral parties represent groups such as students, farmers or regions not well represented by traditional political parties. They also include left-wing political parties.
Absentee voters will also be allowed to vote for president and vice president during elections in 2010, or every six years.
Benjamin Abalos, head of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said he expects about 75 percent of more than 500,000 registered voters in 156 countries to vote either in person or by mail at overseas Philippines missions.
Only about 65 percent of about 360,000 who registered for the first overseas absentee voting in the 2004 presidential elections participated in the balloting.
The number of registered voters is only a fraction of an estimated eight million Filipinos living and working abroad.
Officials have said long distance from workplaces and residences to consular offices, and the relatively large travel expenses that are incurred have discouraged many Filipinos from registering for absentee voting.
A required affidavit stating an "intent to return" and resume physical residency in the Philippines within three years also deterred many potential voters among immigrants and permanent residents in other countries.(AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (April 15, 2007 issue)
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