What’s in a name? A bit of trouble, as one voter realized
last Sunday, Apr 24.
 |
| Aling Carmen |
Old timer Carmencita D. Han caused the tallying of the votes
to be delayed by an hour after the scheduled closure at 5pm, all because she
had used a different name when she registered.
Aling Carmen arrived at Bayanihan Center
At the information desk, her name could not be verified
because the name on her Hong Kong ID did not appear in the list of voters. She
did, however, present a passport which bore the name she had used to register
an as overseas voter.
“I registered as Carmencita D. Bautista, but I remarried
about six years after my husband died in 1995,” she said.
She related she married a Korean trader surnamed Han, and
decided to get a new HK ID card using his surname.
She said she last went to the polls in 2010, when she voted
for incumbent President, Benigno S. Aquino III.
What encouraged her to travel all the way from Tsz Wan Shan
to vote? She said she wanted her candidate to win and even placed a bet on him.
She is hoping the government will give farmers more help,
provide children better education, and the country is rid of rape, drugs, and killings.
“Kung sinong gusto natin, yung nakikita nating may
ginagagawa para sa bayan,” Aling Carmen said.
After checking with the Commission on Elections which gave
the all-clear, Consulate staff helped Aling Carmen secure a ballot and feed it
into the vote-counting machine.
Aling Carmen came to Hong Kong
in the 1960s with her first husband, Ruben, a musician. Their children who were
all born and raised in Hong Kong , are now
grown-ups with families of their own and have adopted different nationalities.
Vir B. Lumicao
