Dubai: Dozens of voter registration IDs remain unclaimed with Philippine authorities here, prompting them to urge voters to pick them up or reregister before the September 30 deadline.
The voter IDs were for Filipinos who registered to vote in the 2004 presidential elections in the Philippines, the first time the government allowed Filipinos abroad to vote.
Vincente Cabe, labour attaché at the Philippine Consulate General, told Gulf News that they had "a boxful" of unclaimed voter IDs at the Philippine Labour Office.
"We've had them for a long time. We assume they have gone home or transferred elsewhere or are just not interested," he said.
He said voters should come to the office to pick them up in order to vote for the upcoming May 2007 elections, when Filipinos will elect their representatives at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.
However, he said not all Filipinos who registered would receive their voter registration ID due to some technical problems.
V. V. Bandillo, the consul, said some of the problems dealt with the voters' personal information.
"Sometimes voters do not receive their IDs because of discrepancies in personal details, such as the spelling of names, residencies and provinces in the Philippines," he said.
More than 26,000 Filipinos registered to vote in 2004 out of an estimated 150,000 eligible voters.
