By Daisy CL Mandap
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| A newly opened vote counting machine is tested - five more of these will be put in use from today |
Responding to a clamor from Filipinos taking part in
this year’s overseas voting in Hong Kong the Commission on Elections has
allowed the Consulate to open five more precincts at Bayanihan Centre starting
today, Tuesday.
The decision was relayed by Consul General Raly Tejada
to The SUN in a text message late on Monday. The Consulate posted a separate
announcement on its Facebook page a few minutes later.
This means, the number of precincts in Hong Kong will
revert to the original ten, instead of the five that were opened on the first
day of voting on Sunday.
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The shortage of polling stations resulted in a long line
of voters, sparking a request from the police that the queuing be stopped less
than four hours after the polling started, saying they could no longer the
crowd.
“Medyo we can rest easy now,” Congen Tejada said in a
message, before adding “This election will set a new record in terms of
participation.”
He said he was particularly happy about the 1,265 people who turned up to vote on the second day of voting, which was relatively high for a
weekday.
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On the first day, the turnout reached 3,265 despite the
early cut-off.
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| Voters in precinct 4 had to wait longer when the VCM got full so its SD card had to be replaced |
Many migrant workers have called out both the Consulate and the Comelec for halving the number of precincts in Hong Kong at a time when overseas Filipinos are being asked to take part in what is seen as a watershed election in the country.
Shiela Tebia-Bonifacio, vice chairperson of United Filipinos
in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante said in a statement that halting the voting
before noon on the first day was to be expected because only five VCMs were in
place to cater to the thousands who had lined up to vote.
“We already pointed out
that this is very problematic, with 93,000 voters. And this is the result:
stopping people from queuing six hours before the polling closed for the day,”
she said.
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The migrant leader also
questioned the Consulate for saying that they expected a turnout of around 40%,
given the pandemic-related restrictions enforced in Hong Kong. Bonifacio said this was
an attempt to disenfranchise many Filipinos.
But Congen Tejada said the Consulate had been lobbying with the
Comelec to keep the 10 precincts previously assigned to Hong Kong.
He said they were aware
that Filipinos in Hong Kong have actively participated in overseas voting from
the time it was introduced in 2004, and that more machines were needed to
ensure a higher turnout this year.
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Comelec’s decision was
said to have been based on a finding that each VCM could take in 20,000 ballots
so with Hong Kong’s 93,000 registered voters, five machines would have
sufficed.
What they apparently
failed to consider was that five precincts would be unable to cope with voters’
demand on Sundays and public holidays when foreign domestic workers who make up
most of the voting population are off.
As soon as voting began
Sunday, however, Congen Tejada already said he was confident he would get the
required authority from Comelec within the week. The police move of halting the
queue that day because of an overflow of voters could have only driven home the
point.
Getting the precincts
ready was no big deal, said Congen, as they had already anticipated getting the
approval, and the additional VCMs were already on standby.
Names previously listed under
the previous six to ten precincts remained clustered and were just mixed in with
those in the five existing ones, allowing for easy segregation.
Teams that will man the
additional precincts have already been put together and trained so they will
have no problem overseeing the polling from the get-go, said Congen.
On top of these
preparations, he said he will talk to the police so they will not halt the queues on Sundays and holidays, when most of the voters are able to go out
to cast their ballots.
“I will make sure to
inform them that we have the capacity to handle more voters,” he said.
“We just need to work
harder so we can clear the lines faster.”
All Filipinos in Hong Kong who are registered to cast
their ballots in the month-long election get the chance to vote for a new
president, vice-president and 12 senators who will each have a six-year term; and
a party-list of their choice.
Those who get elected in the highly contentious election will have to steer the country through the pandemic and a moribund economy wracked by political wrangling and alleged corruption.
