DFA recommends suspension of overseas voter registration in hotspots

DFA Building / Wikipedia photo

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs has recommended to the Commission on Elections the immediate suspension of overseas voters registration for Filipinos in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and the Gaza Strip due to the deteriorating security situation in these areas.

Such recommendation was finalized after consultations between Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and the concerned foreign service posts, a DFA statement said Tuesday.

Despite the recommended suspension of overseas voters registration activities at the various hotspots, DFA is confident that the goal of registering one million new overseas voters for the 2016 Presidential elections is still attainable, the DFA said.

“The DFA Overseas Voting Secretariat, together with the COMELEC, has set an ambitious but statistically attainable goal within the registration period covering May 6, 2014 until October 31, 2015,” it said.

For the first time in the eleven-year electoral history of Philippine overseas voting, overseas voters registration breached the one million mark last June.

Philippine embassies and consulates processed 20,039 new application, which is a 7.5 percent increase over the record breaking performance last May, with 18,631. This brings the two-month total to 38,670.

When added to the existing accumulated overseas voter stock of 975,263, the one million registered overseas voter mark is broken by the total of 1,013,933 for the first time since the start of Philippine overseas voting in 2003.

“The preparations by the Department and the Commission on Elections led to a successful start of the registration process,” Secretary Del Rosario said.

“The challenge for overseas voters registration is to maintain the momentum by keeping the overseas Filipinos interested and engaged in this democratic process,” he added.