Philippine Consulate conducts mock voting ahead of 2016 Philippine Elections

Gulf News

Philippine Consulate conducts mock voting ahead of April 9 start of absentee voting for Philippine Election. Final testing and sealing of Vote-Counting Machines and mock election held at the Philippine Consulate - General in Dubai, as registered overseas Filipino voters start casting their votes starting April 9. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00Filipino overseas absentee voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates who registered for

00:13the 2016 Philippine election can cast their votes starting Saturday, April 9 until May

00:189 at the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai.

00:21On Thursday evening, April 7, the Philippine Consulate in Dubai did the final testing and

00:26sealing of vote counting machines that will be used in the Philippine elections.

00:30A mock election was carried out in order to check if the counting machines are in good

00:34working conditions.

00:36Absentee voting for Filipinos based in the UAE and other countries will start on April

00:409, Saturday.

00:41For voters to have a smooth sailing process while casting votes, certain steps should

00:45be strictly followed.

00:47Present a valid ID to the inspector who will give you a ballot if your name is on the official

00:51list.

00:52Sign and place your thumb mark on the list.

00:54Using only the black official marker, fully shade the oval next to your chosen candidates

00:59for president, vice president, 12 senators and a party list.

01:03Don't overvote as shading more than the required number of candidates nullifies your vote.

01:08Once you're done, insert the ballot in the vote counting machine.

01:12Wait for the machine to print a receipt that ensures your vote was properly entered.

01:16An official will mark your index finger with indelible ink.

01:19I cannot stress enough, I've been stressing over and over again how important it is to

01:25translate their economic power, the economic power of overseas Filipinos to that of political

01:31power.

01:3210% of our Filipinos live abroad and these 10% of overseas Filipinos have a voice, have

01:44something to say about who their leaders should be, especially as we're looking at the next

01:49six years of our country.

01:51There are 122,000 registered voters here in Dubai, the northern emirates, and we do hope

01:57that a good proportion of that number actually come out to vote.

02:02What a waste if these 122,000 have just come to register but not actually participate in

02:10the elections.

02:11We've said time and time again that the overseas Filipinos are the bagong bayani, but at the

02:17same time, beyond economics, let's hope that they could also come up with a more decisive

02:24role especially as far as civic responsibility is concerned and political nation building.

02:31Registered voters who can't go to the Philippine consulate have options to vote in other places

02:35as the Philippine consulate will go around Dubai and the northern emirates through mobile

02:39voting centers.

02:40An announcement will be made in the next few days for the date, time and place of the mobile

02:44voting centers.

02:46Ayrish Eden-Beleza, for Gulf News.

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