By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Rainy May Day saw a steady stream of voters heading to Bayanihan |
Despite heavy rains that lasted through the day, about
3,400 Filipinos turned up to vote at Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town on Sunday,
pushing the turnout in the month-long Overseas Voting so far to more than 44,400.
That’s just about 2,000 fewer than the 46,396 votes
cast in the last presidential election in 2016, which amounted to 49% of the
93,978 registered voters.
Poll watchers said a queue had formed outside
Bayanihan when voting started at 8am, but disappeared only after about two
hours. Still, a steady stream of voters ensured the Sunday tally did not fall
below expectation.
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On Saturday, an additional 1,200 votes were cast.
Consul General Raly Tejada said, “Hope we could push
past 50,000 soon.”
Getting past the total voters’ tally in the hotly
contested presidential election in 2016 is impressive in itself, but is made
more significant by the fact that the month-long voting which started on April
10 is being held amid the most stringent anti-pandemic restrictions in HK.
A last-minute surge of voters from the El Shaddai Catholic
Group and Iglesia ni Kristo who showed up at the polling centre at about 4pm,
helped push the number up.
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Consul Bob Quintin, who has been deputized by the
Commission on Elections to oversee the 2022 OV in Hong Kong, says more voters
from the two religious groups could cast their ballots today, as it has been
designated as a statutory holiday following Labour Day.
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| Members of 2 religious groups arrived in the last hour of voting for the day |
The two groups, each with thousands of Filipino members, had always voted as blocs in the past but there has been no clear instruction this time from their leaders in the Philippines on who they should be voting for.
The two main contenders in the presidential race are Vice President Leonor G. Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who are running alongside Senator Francis Pangilinan and Mayor Sara Duterte, respectively.
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Meanwhile, a small group of women had milled around Bayanihan's entrance shortly after 5pm, hoping to still be allowed inside to vote.
"Sana nag overtime naman sila kahit ilang minuto lang," said one of them. (I wish they had worked overtime even for a few minutes).
Congen Tejada said if there was a need latecomers could be accommodated after 5pm, but ideally they should have at least reached the gate before it was closed.
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He said Consulate staff helping administer the vote had been "super efficient" that the queues were cleared quickly, and that some of them had skipped taking a holiday so they could be at Bayanihan.
Poll watchers say the voting that has gone on for the
past 22 days has been largely uneventful, except for a few odd voters who had kicked
up a fuss, claiming the receipt that came out of the vote counting machine did
not reflect what they had marked on their ballots.
Among them was one female voter who had claimed that the
name of her chosen vice presidential candidate did not come out in her receipt,
while another said no party-list name appeared in hers.
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On a few occasions, poll watchers and volunteers would
draw the attention of precinct officers about some people showing up to vote
wearing shirts with the name or logo of the candidate or party they were
supporting, which is against Comelec’s rules.
But all these were settled amicably, with the voter
being advised to just cover the offending name or logo with a jacket or a bag
while they were in their assigned precincts.
The OV will end on May 9, when all 67 million
registered voters in the Philippines get to cast their ballots. On this day, voting
at Bayanihan will last until 7pm, two hours longer than for the rest of the
voting period.
