OFW Blogger

Migrant groups fear delays in mailing of ballots within the post chaired by Rome.

Italy (which includes Milan, Albania and San Marino) is among the sixteen other posts which will use Modified Voting by Mail. [Aspac DFA (Palau) Bangkok (Thailand), Beijing (China, North Korea, Mongolia) Dhaka (Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka), Guangzhou (China), Hanoi (Vietnam), Islamabad (Pakistan), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Ankara (Turkey), Brussels (Belgium, Luxembourg),  Milan (Italy),  Moscow (Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Rome (Italy, Albania, San Marino), Nairobi (Kenya, Burundi, Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda].

Very much like the posts that will use Automated Voting, there are glitches in voting by mail. The the delays in the delivery of ballots to voters and the non-delivery of ballots. And the voters of Post Italy is beginning to worry. Very few, if any, has received their ballots 24 hours before the commencement of balloting.

Delays in the mailing of ballots to and from the voters are serious treath. If a voter receive the ballot, say, on the 7 May, it will never arrive in time at the Rome canvassing center to be counted and will become invalidated as late or lost vote. And the case of undelivered ballots is another. The undelivered ballot is returned to the Rome PE. Many OFWs who has not received the ballots in the 2010 elections suspected that their ballots were used for shadowy purposes. We do not have any evidence that their ballots were used for fraud, but it will be a tall order to remove the suspicion from their mind, knowing that our electoral system is bedevilled by frauds even by the incumbents.

It is still early to bring out accusations, but, we hope that the glitches be remedied in time.  Part of our apprehensions is that if this will not be resolved by Comelec, OAV will not be credible and thus is doomed to fail.