JEDDAH, 25 September 2005 — The Philippine Consulate in Jeddah has urged Filipinos in the Kingdom who have registered as absentee voters but have not yet received their voter’s ID to speak out. Consul General Pendosina N. Lomondot said the Commission on Election (Comelec) in Manila has promised that even those who have received defective IDs can be issued corrected ones if they so request.
Commissioner Florentino A. Tuason Jr., chair of the Comelec’s Overseas Absentee Voting Committee, had written to the OAV Secretariat at the Department of Foreign Affairs to say that registered voters who have yet to receive their IDs or who have received defective IDs may either write or e-mail his office “to expedite the notification process.”
Tuason said it would be faster if registered voters to send their names and the addresses of their authorized representatives in the Philippines so that the IDs would be sent to them.
The committee can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at this address:
Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting
Commission on Elections
Intramuros, Manila
Philippines
Only about 350,000 overseas Filipinos participated in the Philippines first overseas absentee voting exercise last year.
Consul General Lomondot urged those who have not yet registered to get ready and sign up in the forthcoming registration so that they can also exercise their right to choose their own officials.
The Comelec earlier announced that the continuing OAV registration in Philippine missions abroad will start next month until August 2006 in preparation for the May 2007 national election.
At stake in that election are 12 seats in the Senate, all seats in the House of Representatives including party-list representatives, and all elective positions in the provincial, city and municipal levels.
Overseas absentee voters, however, can vote only for the 12 Senate slots and for party-list representatives.