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Friday, March 29, 2024

Pinoys overseas may vote by mail

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A TOTAL of 75,363 Filipinos overseas will be allowed to vote by mail during the May 9 elections in selected areas where there are authorized Philippine diplomatic posts and so long as the voter is registered in accordance with the rules, the Commission on Elections said Saturday. 

Voters in three regions will be allowed to vote by mail in Lisbon (European Region); Bangkok, Brunei, Chongqing, Dhaka, Dili, Guangzou, Islamabad, Jakarta, Macau, Manado, Meco Kaohsiung, Meco Taichung, Meco Taipei, New Delhi, Phnom Penh, Shanghai, Vientiane and Xiamen (Asia Pacific Region); Abuja, Amman, Cairo, Muscat, Nairobi, Pretoria and Tehran (Middle East and African Region).

On the other hand, a total of 1.1 million voters for the Overseas Absentee Voting from 30 posts in regions such as North and Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East will adopt automated election system by using the Voter Counting Machines.

The OAV voters will only be voting for the following positions, president, vice president, senators and a party-list group.

The voting will start on April 9 until May 9 and the posts will be closed at 3 p.m. (Philippine Time).

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Counting of the votes will be conducted after the posts have closed. 

Earlier, the poll body issued guidelines that the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines must observe when manning the poll body’s checkpoints.

The Comelec said in Resolution No. 10029 dated Dec. 22, 2015 that a checkpoint “must be well-lighted, properly identified and manned by uniformed personnel.”

The Comelec noted that upon approach to checkpoints, the team must require motorists to slow down “and courteously require to dim the headlights and turn on the cabin light.”

Comelec, however, maintained it is prohibited for lawmen to compel the occupants to step out of the vehicle during checkpoint inquiry. Only a visual search of the vehicle is allowed at the checkpoints, Comelec said.

“The search which is normally permissible is limited to visual search where the officer simply looks into the vehicle and flashes a flashlight therein without opening the car’s door,” Comelec said.

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