By Jose Katigbak, STAR Washington Bureau (The Philippine Star)
WASHINGTON - The good news for me is I received my overseas absentee ballot papers today from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and I can vote for the first time ever. The bad news is I have to wade through a long list of candidates for president, vice president, senators and party-list groups.
At least I have between now and May 10 to go through the list with a fine tooth comb and acquaint myself with the candidates, especially the party-list groups, before mailing in my vote. As an absentee voter I also do not have to worry about provincial and local candidates.
Pity the poor voters across the Philippines who haven’t yet made up their minds before stepping into a polling booth on voting day itself. They may be in for a shock.
There are 10 candidates for president, eight for vice president, 61 candidates for 12 senatorial slots and 187 party-list aspirants for one slot. Plus there are an innumerable number of provincial and local candidates to choose from.
If the numbers are not enough to intimidate a voter, the prospect of his or her ballot being invalidated because of a slight mistake should be. Talk about pressure.
The Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat in Manila estimates there are nearly 600,000 overseas absentee voters whose votes could prove vital in a close election.
About 10 percent of these voters are in the United States and Canada, said Consul General Domingo Nolasco of the Philippine embassy in Washington.
He expressed optimism turnout would be high because Filipino permanent residents (Green Card holders) in the United States and Filipino-Americans holding dual citizenship appeared to be more attuned to political developments back home.
Nolasco, designated chairman of the Special Board of Canvassers for the US, said under a deal worked out between the US and Philippine postal services, ballot papers are mailed directly by the Comelec to the USPS for local distribution at a cost of about P12 (26 US cents) each.
Had the ballot papers been sent by diplomatic pouch to Philippine missions in the US for direct mailing, it would have cost 66 US cents each.
A major problem is that the 7.5 x 11-inch brown Comelec envelope with the ballot papers has a printed directive that if undelivered it should be forwarded to the nearest Philippine mission, Nolasco said.
The US Postal Service has said it should be the one to stamp that directive on the envelope and in some states, instead of delivering the mail to the named individuals, it delivers them directly to the nearest Philippine mission.
In the Los Angeles-San Francisco area, for instance, about 800 electoral envelopes have been delivered to the consulates for them to mail directly to recipients, Nolasco said.
So what did the brown envelope mailed directly to my house contain? A page of instructions, a three-page back-to-back list of candidates, a 4 x 11-inch official ballot, a 3.5 x 6.5-inch numbered official ballot envelope addressed to the Philippine embassy in Washington, and a small paper seal with the same number as the official ballot.
And what do I have to do? Fill in my choices, place my thumb mark at the bottom of the official ballot, stick the ballot into the official envelope, sign and print my name on it, seal it and hand deliver or mail it to the embassy.
Nolasco invited the press and the public to witness the vote counting at the embassy for greater transparency.
The votes will be tabulated for the whole of the United States at the embassy as soon as polls close in Manila and the results relayed to Comelec. Nolasco will then hand carry the original documents to Congress within 48 hours.
‘Monitor RP elections’
A group of concerned Filipino-Americans headed by businesswoman Loida Nicolas Lewis called on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to request a US delegation be sent to the Philippines to monitor the May 10 elections.
Lewis, former head of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations, described the coming elections as “perilous and full of question marks” and expressed concern the government may attempt to rig the results.
Lewis, who campaigned actively for Clinton in her bid for the presidency, said foreign observers were needed to ensure the elections are free and fair.
She said her main concern was the reliability and accuracy of the automated election system to be used for the first time in the Philippines.
Clinton promised to “seriously consider the matter.”
She visited Manila last November for consultations on the RP-US treaty alliance and to show US support for victims of typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”
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