RIYADH: The Filipino overseas absentee voters (OAV) registration will stop by the end of October. A Filipino migrant’ rights group now urges its members and networks to intensify campaign to reach a total of one million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East (M-ME) regional coordinator said, “Migrante officers, members, and OFW networks will to go to OFWs tambayans (gatherings) and OFWs accommodations to urge them to register and explain the importance of exercising one’s right of suffrage.”
The number of OFWs is estimated to reach 12 to 15 million worldwide.
“We believe that Filipinos abroad can be a potent swing vote that could win a nationally elected position such as president, vice-president, and senators,” said Monterona.
“Come May 2013 elections, we hope that a genuine representation of OFWs in the Philippine Congress will come true via a party-list system of elections. For this we hope that the OAV turnout will be huge,” Monterona said.
On Sunday, the Filipino Department of Foreign Affairs said that the number of new registrants in the OAV registration had already surpassed the figures in the 2010 National Elections, at 249,391 new registrants. Adding those new OAV registrants to the ones that had already registered during the 2010 elections would bring the grand total to 839,221 OAV registrants.
“We need less than 200,000 more to reach the target of one million overseas absentee voters and we still have a month of registration,” Monterona noted.
Philippine overseas voter registration nears end
