A registered Filipina voter casting her ballot at the voting centre in the Philippine Embassy recently.
KOTA KINABALU: Registered Filipino voters in Malaysia are urged to come out in full force and exercise their right to vote in the May 9 Philippine general election.
The 18,610 registered overseas voters presently residing and working in the country are also reminded to refrain from casting their votes at the eleventh hour to avoid inconveniences.
“Just like in other foreign countries, absentee voting started April 9 and will continue until the official polling day on Monday (May 9),” Philippine consul-general Maria Antonina Oblema said.
She said the embassy in Kuala Lumpur opened two voting precints equipped with two Vote Counting Machines (VCM) and manned by three Comelec personnel plus other staff to ensure clean and orderly election.
The Consul-general said the voting centres were open from 9am to 5pm daily including weekends and public holidays.
“We will also make our personnel available from 6am onwards during the actual polling day on Monday to take care of the needs of voters,” Oblema said, adding that a field voting exercise was conducting in Penang last April 30 upon a request from the Filipino community there.
“Some 120 Registered Filipino voters successfully cast their respective votes during the exercise in Penang”.
However, she said the embassy would no longer organize field voting exercise in other states in Malaysia.
According to her, other voters who have yet to exercise their right of suffrage are now advised to cast their respective votes at the voting centre located inside the compound of the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Replying to a question, Oblema said the embassy was optimistic that the voting exercise would be carried out without much problems.
She said counting and canvassing of ballots would be carried out immediately after the last vote had been cast on Monday night after which the result would be forwarded to the Election Commission in Manila on the same day.
“I would like to remind our qualified voters to bring along with them their respective Philippine passport or identification cards for verification purposes,” Oblema stressed.