RIYADH, 13 March 2004 — The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate General in Jeddah were open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. yesterday for the first day of absentee voting for seafarers but not one of the registered voters showed up. Forty-three have been registered in Riyadh and 48 in Jeddah.

“The embassy was ready for the seafarers, who were either working at the Port of Dammam or their vessels were docked there when they came to the embassy to register. They did not come today but they said they preferred to vote in Riyadh when they registered,” said Minister Counselor Mariano A. Dumia, who is temporarily in charge of the embassy in Riyadh.

Voting proceeded in other places. The first to cast his vote was a Filipino seaman in Brunei, followed by another in Berlin, Germany, according to the Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ in Manila.

DFA spokesman Julia Heidemann said that because of the long voting period, she expects voters to trickle into the voting centers.

Over a thousand seafarers who registered as absentee voters have two months to cast their votes in precincts in Philippine diplomatic offices in about 70 countries and territories. Because of the nature of their work, seafarers were given two months to cast their votes. Land-based OFWs will begin voting on April 11 until the main election day, May 10.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed confidence that absentee voting exercise would be successful.

“I pray that the inception of overseas voting will run smoothly as we start showcasing Philippine democracy to the world,” she said in a statement.

“My administration fought for this right for overseas Filipinos in recognition of their heroism and sacrifices for our nation and for their loved ones in the Philippines,” she said, adding the exercise was a “historical highlight” for democracy.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert earlier directed Philippine diplomatic posts around the world to open to receive seamen casting their absentee votes for president, vice president, 12 senators, and party-list representative.

Voting centers in Agana, Guam, Saipan in the Northern Marianas, and Canberra and Sydney in Australia, were the first to open Friday. The last polling station to open was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The department is anticipating problems for seafarers who may not make it to the polling centers they specified as where they would vote when they registered last year. This could be caused by arrival delays, or destination changes of the ships where they are working. If this is the case, the absentee voter can request that his ballot be sent to the polling center of the new country where he intends to cast his vote.

The DFA and the Comelec reminded all overseas Filipino voters to check if their names were included in the certified list of absentee voters posted at the Comelec website before heading off to the voting precincts.

In Riyadh, the Comelec-DFA team headed by Director Mamasapunod Aguam were at the embassy to make sure that everything was ready for the election.

Aguam and his team had earlier completed the retraining of members of the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEIs), which is chaired by Rey Banda, with Potresam Moner and Pacita Sarael as members.

In Jeddah, consulate administrative officer Taha Guinomla, said they are expecting the seamen who have registered in the port city to drop by anytime they are in town.

Jeddah’s SBEI is chaired by Omar Mitmug. Its members are Enrico Silva and Romulo Abu. (Additional input from Inquirer News Service)