Following Bayan Muna's resolution alleging that the absentee voting in Hong Kong (HK) were “chaotic and disorganized,” Consulate General of the Philippines in HK Consul General Raly L. Tejada denied the claims made by the party-list.
Tejada says that the allegations made about overseas voting in HK were untrue, despite long lines of voters who were all eager to participate during the first day of absentee voting on April 10.
“There was an allegation that voting in Hong Kong was chaotic and disorganized. I would like to refute this. I would like to state categorically that the conduct of overseas election in HK was neither chaotic nor disorganized. Wala po kaming na-observe na kaguluhan dito (We didn’t observe any chaos here),” Tejada told members of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms during a panel hearing on Wednesday, April 20.
The Bayan Muna Party-list filed a House resolution, urging the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to probe overseas Filipino workers (OFW) absentee voting which officially begun on April 10.
“In HK, for instance, complaints were raised early as thousands of voters were not accommodated on the first day of overseas voting. Other concerns raised are the lack of vote-counting machines (VCM) as only five (5) were provided by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to the consular office instead of the usual ten (10) in the previous elections,” read Bayan Muna’s resolution dated April 12.
Tejada also said that the Consulate had encouraged voters to consider voting on other days amid security and health concerns.
“Wala naman naging issue (There was no issue) about that incident but to reach clarity... We came to a decision to inform the public that sana i-consider nila (hopefully they consider) to vote on another day. Lagay ko lang sa konteksto ang naganap nung araw na yun (To put into context what happened on the first day of voting),” Tejada continued.