Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia are expected to participate in unprecedented numbers in their country’s national elections scheduled for May 13, 2013, according to Philippine diplomats stationed here.
“The fact that the number of OFW registrants exceeded that of 2009 is an indication of their interest,” Ambassador Ezzedin H. Tago told Arab News on Saturday.
Overseas absentee voters will be able to cast ballots for 12 senators and one party-list representative.
“This year’s Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) figures show the importance Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia give to their right to vote, despite 2013 being a midterm election year,” Tago added.
A total of 9,585 filippino ex-pats have registered in Riyadh, Central Region and the Eastern Province while 1,640 have registered in Jeddah. The new registrants will cast their ballots along with those who registered earlier and who cast absentee ballots in previous elections. Jeddah Consul General Uriel Norman R. Garibay added, “On occasions that we were invited by the Filipino community, we asked them about the OAV and they said they’re interested in registering and casting their votes when election time comes”.
Garibay noted, however, that many OFWs - such as those working in Jazan and Asir – had earlier expressed doubts that they would be able to travel to the consulate to register and cast their votes.
Jazan is in the southwest corner of the Kingdom and directly north of the border with Yemen while Abha is the capital city of Asir in the Southern Region.
Garibay added that the OFWs claimed that their work areas and residences are too far from the consulate for them to travel.
But while the embassy and consulate noted the interest of OFWs in the Kingdom regarding the OAV and the elections, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported that as of Oct. 30, the total number of registrants worldwide was only 950, 216, which is 50,974 short of the one million target. Of the 950,216 OFWs who registered, 360,386 were new registrants.
The DFA said that despite “failing its target of one million overseas absentee voters for the 2013 midterm elections, the number of overseas voters has tripled since absentee balloting for Filipinos abroad was introduced in 2004.”
Eric P. Asi, a senior engineer at a local company in Riyadh, said, “ More OFWs could have registered if the request to extend the registration was granted but this was denied by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).”
The information drive for the OAV was conducted among OFWs through the slogan “Boto nyo...kinabukasan namin (Your vote...our future)”, aimed at increasing political consciousness and participation of overseas Filipinos.
The DFA-Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat, through the various Philippine diplomatic and overseas labor posts around the world, registered OAV applicants up to the very last day of registration on Oct. 31.
OFWs eager to take part in next year’s elections
