The site of automated overseas absentee voting in Hong Kong. Photo grabbed from Wikipedia.
Hours after the Philippines first overseas automated elections opened in Hong Kong, partylist group Gabriela Women’s Party reported “harassment and intimidation as well as major glitches” which it said could “seriously hamper” the conduct of the overseas absentee voting there until May 10.
Cynthia Abdon-Tellez said in a statement that “more names were discovered to have been deleted or were not at all included in the Certified List of Overseas Absentee Voters (CLOAV)”.
As of last week, Abdon-Tellez said at least 140 names of OFWs have been excluded or delisted without cause.
“There were also voters today who went to Bayanihan fully expecting to be able to vote as they have also voted in 2004 or 2007 but were turned back because they were not in the CLOAV,” she said.
More OFWs, especially domestic workers on their weekend day-off, are expected to troop on Sonday to Hong Kong’s Bayanihan Center, the official site chosen by the Commission on Elections and the Philippine consulate-general for the OAV there.
Abdon-Tellez also assailed the Comelec for the “last minute reconfiguration of precincts” which required OFWs to again check their names, sequence and precinct numbers in the CLOAV.
Abdon-Tellez likewise scored Vice Consul Joy Banagodos, a member of the OAV Secretariat, for harassing Gabriela members and supporters for leafleting and hanging banners outside Bayanihan Center, which is considered not covered by Philippine law.
“Since 2004, this issue has already been decided on by the Comelec and it has always been clear that since the outside of the Bayanihan Kennedy Town Centre is no longer the jurisdiction of the Philippines, leafleting and banners cannot be prohibited. Such was also affirmed by Consul General Claro Cristobal in a meeting last April 6,” she explained.