56-year-old Leyteño is first absentee voter to cast ballot

A 56-year-old Filipino from Southern Leyte was the first absentee voter to cast her ballot under the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) for the May 14 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Comelec Commissioner and Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting chair Florentino Tuazon said voter Nicanora Maglinis cast her ballot in a voting post at the Philippine embassy in Koror, Palau at exactly 9 a.m. "It was personal voting," he told The STAR.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Claro Cristobal said Maglinis has been an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) for 18 years and that she worked in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia prior to her job in Palau, where she has been employed for the last 10 years.

Maglinis lives near the Philippine embassy in Koror with five other OFWs and she had also voted by OAV during the 2004 national elections.

Maglinis "was encouraged to vote (after she followed) on television the events in the Philippines," Cristobal said.

Tuazon said the second voter was Rowena dela Cruz, 40, who cast her ballot in Hong Kong at 9:17a.m.

The first ballots received by mail came from Wellington, New Zealand.

Around 504,1100 absentee voters all over the world started casting their votes yesterday. Voting will continue until 3 p.m. on May 14.

Comelec Commissioner Benjamin Balaos Sr. said they expect voter turnout for the OAV to be between 75 and 80 percent during an interview over Vice President Noli de Castro’s television program "Para sa Iyo, Bayan."

Abalos said the high voter turnout rate the Comelec expects is due to the fact that "there is now voting by mail and there are now voting booths at the workplaces of OFWs in Saudi Arabia."

He also urged Filipinos with dual citizenship in the United States to register and vote in the next OAV and assuring them that taking such action will not strip them of their American citizenship or make them subject to double taxation

DFA OAV Secretariat vice chairman Generoso Calonge said there is now a total of 157,868 qualified overseas Filipino voters because of the expanded coverage of this mode of voting.

Tuazon said the Comelec has not received a full report on the voter turnout yesterday. The Comelec is still monitoring the overseas absentee voting (OAV) procedure in 88 foreign service posts worldwide.

"Hong Kong has 55 personal voting (ballots recorded) this morning," he said. "There was a handful of voting by mail received already in Chicago, Berlin and other jurisdictions. I think the turnout of voters is good on the first day, (considering that) this is a 30-day voting period."

He also said the Comelec is expecting more Filipino seafarers to cast their ballots this year because these seafarers can now vote at any post worldwide. The Philippine government has opened 49 voting posts for more than 18,000 seafarers across the globe.

When the OAV system was first adopted in the 2004 elections, seafarers were able to cast their votes only in areas where they previously expressed their intention to vote, but, in most cases, the seafarers’ vessels were not in these areas during the voting period, so they were not able to cast their ballots.

"I think the adjustments that we implemented are enough to encourage our seafarers to participate in this election," Tuazon said.

Under the new OAV setup, special boards of election inspectors (SBEIs) have been formed to conduct the absentee voting and to count the votes in voting centers abroad.

Each SBEI is composed of a chairman – usually the ambassador, consul-general or any career public officer posted abroad. In the absence of any government officer, the two other members of the board can be any Filipino citizens who are qualified to vote under the absentee voting scheme.

The canvassing of OAV ballots starts after the 3 pm voting period in the polling precincts in the Philippines on May 14.

Meanwhile, Malacañang downplayed concerns that the overseas absentee voting process would be saddled with irregularities, saying that these were "unnecessary fears."

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters that the 2004 elections, which saw the implementation of the OAV for the first time, was effective and free of any irregularities.

The opposition claims the OAV can be used by the administration for poll fraud, since the political parties will not have any watchers to guard the overseas votes.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is running for re-election under the Genuine Opposition ticket, recently told the Filipinos in Hong Kong to guard the ballots against possible cheating.

Ermita said that he doubts any cheating will take place, citing the 2004 elections as proof: "It’s unlikely this would take place. In 2004, there were no irregularities. It is an unnecessary fear. There is nothing to worry about here." – Sheila Crisostomo, Aurea Calica, Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan, Pia Lee Brago