MANILA - A network of Filipinos in Europe lauded the decision of the Commission on Elections to reinstate more than 200,000 overseas voters it delisted from the Overseas Absentee Voters list for failing to vote in the last two elections in 2007 and 2010.
The European Network of Filipino Diaspora (ENFiD) considers a victory the COMELEC's reinstatement of the 238,000 overseas voters who were removed from the Overseas Absentee Voters lists.
“Our task now in ENFiD is to pass the word around as widely as possible to all our contacts across Europe, first to tell them the good news, and then to encourage them to exercise their right to vote,” said ENFiD Chairman Gene Alcantara.
Alcantara was among the group from the global Filipino Diaspora Council or GFDC who called on the COMELEC to reconsider its decision on the disenfranchised overseas voters.
The group explained that without adequate notice and due process, the Comelec had unwittingly wasted the efforts of overseas groups, mainly the Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC), which relentlessly campaigned for absentee voting during the last 10 years.
Alcantara had promised COMELEC Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. that the ENFiD network, covering 50 countries, would do its very best to get overseas Filipinos in Europe to turn out to vote in May 2013 and to register for future national elections.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
