By Daisy CL Mandap
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| More than 1,600 people voted today despite an overcast day (photo from Congen Raly Tejada) |
Hong Kong looks
on track to surpass the 49% turnout recorded in the 2016 overseas voting presidential
elections with the daily tally not
falling below 1,000 despite the most severe social distancing restrictions imposed by the government.
According to
Consul General Raly Tejada, the turnout in the past 14 days of voting has topped 31,000.
With 16 more
days to go, which include three Sundays and two statutory holidays on May 2 and
9 (day after Labor Day and Buddha’s Birthday, respectively), he is confident
the final figure would at least eclipse the 42,000 posted in 2016.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
The total
registered number of voters then was only slightly less than the 93,265 logged
for this year.
Congen Tejada
said he was hopeful that alongside a higher turnout, the ongoing vote which
ends on May 9 would remain peaceful and orderly with help from the Filipino
community.
He also reported
that all 10 precincts or SBEIs (special board of election inspectors) each with
a working vote counting machine will be in place for tomorrow’s vote, and that
this should considerably cut the queuing time for voters.
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“10 VCMs and 10
SBEIs tayo tomorrow,” he said.
Last Sunday, two VCMs broke down, leading to longer lines for voters, with some allocated to the nun-functioning precincts being forced to wait for more than six hours to cast their ballots. Despite this, a record 5,000 plus people managed to vote.
Congen Tejada
said the replacement machines arrived on Thursday, and they were able to set
them up immediately.
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| PRESS FOR DETAILS! |
On Thursday, the
turnout was a steady 1,300, then dipped slightly to about 1,000 on Friday. Today
it was back to 1,600.
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| The queue quickly cleared because all precincts were open again |
The country’s top diplomat came under fire from militant groups over the police decision to stop queuing on the first Sunday of voting less than four hours after it started. United Filipinos-Migrante Hong Kong blamed this on only five precincts being opened initially for the vote.
Unifil said more
than twice as many voters could have cast their ballots that day if the “chaos”
did not happen.
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| Press for details |
The group also
deplored that the Consulate had run out of poll watchers’ IDs because of indiscriminate
distribution to various groups.
But during an online
hearing at the House of Representatives on the chaos claims earlier this week,
Congen Tejada said cutting off the queue on the first Sunday had to be made at
the request of the police who said they could no longer control the crowds.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
He also said the
initial decision to cut the number of precincts in Hong Kong by half was made
by the Commission on Elections. The Consulate, he said, would never have made
that decision because it made their job more difficult.
He appealed to
all members of the community to just work together to ensure an orderly and
successful overseas voting.
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| PADALA NA! |
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