FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Filipino expats in Thailand set to cast absentee ballots

Filipino expats in Thailand set to cast absentee ballots

Philippine embassy hopes the turnout will be 90 per cent as candidates run Facebook campaigns.

ANDY NOCES CUBALIT, a Filipino lecturer in Phitsanulok province received his ballot yesterday, and when it comes to the senatorial bets, he is sure to choose a candidate from his Ilocano ethnic group.
Cubalit is just one of the 6,121 registered absentee voters in the Kingdom. A conservative estimate puts Filipino expats in Thailand at 16,000, according to the Philippine Embassy. Not all registered for the election because many of them are constantly moving for visa runs or are on holidays in the Philippines and will vote there.
The ballots for the absentee voters are sent through express mail by the embassy. Since June 2015, it had encouraged OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) to register. Its staff had conducted field services in provinces a fair way away from Bangkok.
The ballots for absentee voters arrived during the second week of March. In spite of the delay and the distance of the provinces, the Philippine Embassy conducted field voting in Chiang Mai from April 5 and 6 for registered OFWs in the North and the Northeast.
Voting in Bangkok kicked off on Saturday and will continue until May 9. All ballots sent to other provinces must be returned to the Philippine Embassy by 4pm on May 9. The assigned elections commission (Comelec) officials and embassy staff will do the canvassing of ballots.
“We are asking the Filipinos to send their ballots as early as possible, to avoid delay and their votes be counted,” the Philippine Embassy announced.
Absentee voting turnout in Thailand in the recent years was very low and the embassy hopes at least 90 per cent of the voters will cast their ballot. 
 
Campaigning on Facebook
Facebook is the most popular site for OFWs in campaigning for their respective candidates. In Thailand, Duterte Eagles Thailand and DDS Thailand are the most active campaign groups advocating for presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, while Mar Roxas and other presidential aspirants are not popular on social media sites. There is no group campaigning for the vice presidential aspirants, senatorial bets or party lists.
For a year now, Facebook has been the source of political views of the OFWs in Thailand. Many from Mindanao are solidly for Duterte, while the rest are mixed in their vice presidential bets.
Arnel Bandiola Barcelona from North Cotabato offers free T-shirt printing for his presidential bet. “It is a way of helping him, because he does not have money,” Barcelona said.
The Philippine Embassy is mum on the campaigning of various groups on Facebook, saying that it is their right to free expression.
“We cannot predict who will win. We are not in the position to tell,” an embassy official said.
Josemari Cordova, a sociology lecturer at Vongchavalitkul University in Nakhon Ratchasima, believes that the OFWs are concentrating more on who will lead the country rather than focusing on the Senate or the party lists.
“We are not in the Philippines, so most are not aware on the candidates for senators and even the party-list groups. We are more concerned on the person that would lead the country,” he said. Absentee voters can only vote for the president, vice president, senators and party lists.
Whatever the result of the election, OFWs and the Philippine Embassy hope for a peaceful election. “Our families are there. We want our elections to be peaceful and not be manipulated by the ruling class,” Cordova said. 
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