15 March 2010

In a bid to familiarize Filipino migrants with the automated election system for the coming overseas absentee voting, GABRIELA – HK with militant group United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK) set up practice tables with magic slates at Chater Road where OFWs can practice shading ballots.

“In our voter’s education drive, we found that OFWs are anxious on how the voting will go and how can they ensure that their ballot does not get spoiled. Through this practice, we hope to familiarize them to the size of the ballot and how to properly shade their candidates of choice,” said Cynthia Abdon-Tellez of GABRIELA-HK.

The ‘magic slate’, added Abdon-Tellez, not only pertains to the practice slates they used but also to the candidates they are endorsing in the coming polls including senatoriables Rep. Satur Ocampo and Rep. Liza Maza and Gabriela Women’s Party for party-list.

The groups set up practice booths all over Central and encouraged passing OFWs to try out shading circles that are exactly the same size of that in the sample ballot of the COMELEC. According to Abdon-Tellez, it took a couple of tries before OFWs could sufficiently and properly shade the ovals especially for those with eyesight problems.

“This is part of our efforts to educate the OFW voting public on this new process of elections.  It again falls on the hands of OFW to equip ourselves so our right of suffrage will not suffer another setback,” she lamented.

Early this month, representatives of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) met with some leaders of OFW organizations in Hong Kong to explain how the AES will work. Abdon-Tellez, however, said that such a move was already very late given that the OAV will start in HK on April 10.

“One month for us only means four days. How can the COMELEC expect to educate the more than 90,000 registered voters in HK who will be the first Filipinos to officially try the AES? When it comes to OFWs and the OAV, the COMELEC is always late or worse, downright neglectful,” she stated.

According to her, OFWs are also worried about the nonchalant attitude of Commissioner Velasco, who represented the COMELEC in the HK briefing for the AES, towards how OFWs will vote using the AES.

“Far from reassuring us, Commissioner’s Velasco’s overconfidence that the EAS will just be a simple process and will go without a hitch actually scares us. For the tens of thousands of OFWs who will not be reached by the voter’s education efforts of OFW organizations, the chance that they will make a mistake and thus have their ballot invalid is high. This close to the elections, OFWs are again facing disenfranchisement,” she added.

Abdon-Tellez reported that they will take the magic slates to other areas in Hong Kong to reach out to more OFWs.

“We shall not let our votes go to waste juts because the COMELEC and its deputized personnel abroad cannot do its job of empowering the electorate,” she concluded.