Philippines | 60pct of overseas voters registered in Macau cast their ballots

Overseas Absentee Voting for the Philippine presidential election ended on Monday after a month-long voting period. The Consulate General of the Philippines in Macau is set to end the tallying of votes today.
Only 60 percent of registered Filipino voters cast their votes at the consulate, according to Philippine vice-consul in Macau, Ira Valdez.
She stressed to the Times that there were no major problems during the month-long voting period in the region, while all queries were always immediately forwarded to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
When asked if there were voters who didn’t comply with the election rules, she said: “There were minor rule violations especially regarding the use of mobile phones inside the precinct. People were repeatedly reminded that taking photos of ballots is an election offense. Maybe it is also because a lot of people are just excited to vote,” the vice-consul added.

Most of the voters gave positive feedback especially regarding the ease with which they could cast their vote, implied Valdez.  The waiting period at the polling stations was relatively short.
The COMLEC decided that the overseas voting in Macau would be personal voting with manual counting, which suggested the votes could only be tallied in the Consulate after the polls closed on May 9.
“We have accredited poll watchers from various organizations and members of the Filipino community that can witness the actual tallying. The members of the Special Board of Election Inspectors at the Consulate attended training in Manila and Hong Kong as well,” revealed the vice-consul.
Meanwhile according to a TDM report, the tally of votes will be held in four separate rooms with witnesses including a Macau-based Filipino priest, Fr Joey Mandia, who is the editor-in-chief of Macau’s weekly Catholic newspaper “O Clarim.”
Mandia told TDM that he has been actively engaging in political debates on social media along with his fellow citizens. “It’s a different stage in our process of learning how to be democratic. I think it also shows a kind of maturity Overseas Filipino Workers [have now that they have been] exposed to the life abroad so I think that prepares them to make better choices,” Mandia stressed.
Mandia, who cast his vote in Hong Kong, added that voting in Hong Kong was automated unlike Macau, as the machine would only accept a minimum of 10,000 entries. Hong Kong accounts for over 93, 000 registered voters of the 1.3 million overseas voters worldwide, while the region only had some 5,000 registered voters. Staff reporter