Video tutorial to prod Filipinos to vote
Tutorial is aimed at encouraging Filipinos to go out and vote for their children’s future
Dubai: A new video on how to vote featuring a consulate official and some children is in the works to encourage Filipinos to turn up at the polls next week and vote for their children’s future, a consul said.
Consul Ferdinand Flores said the Philippine consulate is finalising a two-minute video aimed to teach Filipino voters how to cast their votes using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in the presidential elections beginning on April 9.
Automated voting is being held in the Middle East for the second time, six years after automated elections were conducted in the Philippines.
Flores said the video will feature the consul-general along with some children to drum up interest in the polls and increase voter turnout. During the 2013 elections, only 6.35 per cent of the 55,842 registered voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates voted.
“The children should encourage their parents to vote because the decision that the parents will be doing this time — casting their votes — will affect their future. At the same time, we want people to behave like they’re a voting bloc,” Flores told Gulf News.
Flores said the video tutorial will be played at the consulate and shared on its social media accounts to reach as many voters as possible.
Here's the vote capturing machine demonstration by the Commission on Elections.
Flores said the consulate currently has 12 PCOS machines to cater to the 122,185 Filipino voters from Dubai and the Northern Emirates for the 30-day election period from April 9.
“We will be going around Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah to seek them [voters] out. We will bring the polling machines to them so they won’t have to come to us. This means they have no excuse anymore not to vote,” Flores said.
Flores said aside from being open at the weekends to accommodate more voters, the consulate will implement a split timing, meaning they will open in the morning, have a break in the afternoon and open again in the evening to allow Filipinos to vote after work. The final timings will be announced next week.
Flores also urged voters to collect their voter’s ID cards at the consulate. Some 80,000 IDs are ready for collection but only about 1,000 have been collected.
