Photo: Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes leads a press conference announcing preparations made for the upcoming overseas absentee voting which starts April 13.
Dubai: The Philippine Consulate will be open from 8am to 9pm everyday from April 13 to May 12 except on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to accommodate the over 200,000 overseas registered voters expected to cast their votes in the midterm elections.
A dry run of the electoral exercise was held today at Consulate premises where vote counting machines were opened to check if everything is in order. The machines are capable of processing votes in a matter of about 4 seconds.
Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes, in a press conference, said voting will end at 2pm on May 13 to coincide with the closure of elections in the Philippines at 6pm of the same day.
Also, he said OFWs should check their names on the Certified List of Overseas Voters at the Consulate for them to vote.
He said OFWs who were not able to register will not be allowed to vote.
He noted that registration ran from Dec. 2016 to Sept. 2018.
“that’s more than a year’s time,” he said.
There are 115,000 new registered overseas voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
Vice Consul Marianne Bringas, head of the consulate’s OAV committee said there is a total of 57 Consulate staff and volunteers that will be mobilized for the electoral exercise.
She also gave a rundown of acts that should not be done in the conduct of voting.
Among them, she said is overvoting. Up for election are 12 seats in the Senate and one party list member in the lower house. Overvoting will render the ballot void.
Also not allowed is taking pictures of the filled-up ballots and posting them on social media, she said.
This and other illegal acts are considered election offenses which carries penalties of imprisonment of not less than a year and not more than six years, among others.
Groups wearing same shirts are allowed provided they do not campaign, Bringas said.
