MANILA, 7 January 2007 — The Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) has said voting by mail for absentee voters in May will definitely exclude overseas Filipinos based in Saudi Arabia and some other Middle Eastern countries.

Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. said that this exclusion will also include Hong Kong and other cities in China where the postal system are considered not so reliable.

“This was the recommendation of the posts (the diplomatic entities in the concerned countries,” Tuason told Arab News.

“Voting there will still be at the posts.” Posts means Philippine embassies, consulates or other places designated by the Comelec as official voting sites. According to Tuason, voting by mail will cover “all other countries” where the postal systems are dependable. Among these are the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Italy and other European countries, and Australia.

Filipino community groups in Riyadh, Jeddah, Alkhobar and other key places have written Manila officials to seek the inclusion of OFWs in the Kingdom not just in postal voting but also in online voting.

Saudi Arabia’s Filipino community account for the biggest number of registered absentee voters at slightly more than 100,000.

Many of those who have registered in 2003, however, failed to cast their votes in the 2004 election owing to the difficulty of traveling to the designated voting centers.

In that election, voting was allowed only at the Philippine Consulate general in Jeddah, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, and the International Philippine School in Alkhobar.

Community groups have asked the Comelec to voters in the Kingdom to allow them to cast their ballot at least via the Internet.

Tuason said he is awaiting the solicitor general’s opinion on his authority to implement Internet voting or e-voting.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez earlier reiterated the agency’s plan to increase the number of countries where overseas Filipinos who registered for this year’s mid-term elections may vote by mail.

“We will be allowing voting by mail for overseas absentee voting,” Jimenez Kapihan sa Sulo, a weekly news forum in Quezon City.

At a hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Absentee Voting several months back, some legislators opposed the proposal to include Saudi Arabia among the countries for the implementation of voting by mail because of unsecured addresses.

They cited the use of postal boxes as addresses in the Kingdom instead of house numbers and street names.

Saudi Arabia this year began installing post office boxes at residences, but the Comelec was told that the use of such PO boxes will not likely become widespread in the foreseeable future, especially among guest workers who may prefer a post office box rather than an address linked to a specific residence.

By the end of the registration period last Nov. 30, the number of new absentee voting registrants worldwide totaled 143,017, according to the OAV Secretariat of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Added to the 364,000 who registered in 2003, the total number of registered voters abroad means more than half a million voters will be voting in the 2007 senatorial elections.

The vote of OFWs worldwide would be enough to affect voting results, Tuason said.