ALKHOBAR, 20 July 2003 — Filipinos in the eastern part of the Kingdom may be able to register for the Philippine Overseas Absentee Voting program without going to Riyadh.
Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla said he had requested the host government to allow the Philippine Embassy to put up a registration center in Alkhobar in response to the plea of the OFWs in the Eastern Province.
Guinomla said, however, that the option of allowing the OFWs to vote in Alkhobar will not be possible since the embassy had twice asked the host government about it and both requests were rejected.
Besides, the Philippine absentee voting law requires that overseas Filipinos vote only inside Philippine embassies or consulates. “Let’s just hope that we will be able to put up a registration center in Alkhobar,” said Guinomla, who was in Alkhobar on Friday to grace the midyear general membership meeting and technical seminar-workshop of the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers (IIEE) in the Eastern Province, which was held at the Le Gulf Meridien Hotel.
He also announced during an open forum with the electrical engineers that the Commission on Election in Manila will be sending additional budget to hire locally more personnel to assist the embassy staff during the two-month registration period from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 and the one-month election period on April 10 to May 10.
Asked if the planned “Registration on Wheels” was a certainty, Guinomla replied confidently: “Inshallah.”
Guinomla estimated that only 20 percent of Filipinos in the Kingdom may be able to vote come 2004 national elections. “That’s our best estimate,” he said.
The embassy also clarified yesterday that OFWs in the Eastern Region are not allowed to register and vote in Bahrain.
Community organizations here have suggested that Filipinos in the region go to Bahrain instead to vote since it is only a one-hour drive from Alkhobar.
Filipino trailer drivers in Dammam, who travel every day to Kuwait and Iraq, had also inquired at the embassy if they could be allowed to register and vote in Kuwait since they have no work route for the Saudi capital.
Vice Consul Adrian Elmer Cruz responded that according to the Absentee Voting Law, OFWs should only register and vote in their place of residency or work.
OFWs in the Eastern Region are considered under the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
