Heavy turnout at PH consulate in Dubai as OFWs vote at the last minute

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) trooped to the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai in the last 3 days leading to May 13, the deadline of the overseas absentee voting for the midterm elections to cast their ballots, an exercise largely seen as a referendum of President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance in the past 3 years.

“Over the weekend, May 10 and May 11, we had over 7,000 voters,” Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes told The Filipino Times. “The Consulate was packed.”

Hundreds more OFWs came to the consulate in a steady flow for the electoral exercise on May 12.

“We have 5 people arriving in every 3 minutes. It’s a very, very heavy flow,” Cortes said.

Dubai has the biggest overseas electorate compared to all other OFW destinations across the world, officials said, with 209,202 voters, up 115,000 from 2016′s 94,202.

Abu Dhabi has 109,000, up by 37,000 from 2016’s 72,000, records show.

There are 165,714 new overseas Filipino voters in the UAE. There were 195,651 during the 2016 presidential elections. The new total is at 361,365.

In the UAE, Duterte got 51,879 from the total 62,103 actual votes – or some 83.5%. Actual voters’ turnout was 31.74% of 195,651 registered voters, according to the Philippine embassy. – Rappler.com 

This story was republished with permission from The Filipino Times of the United Arab Emirates.

Follow Rappler’s full coverage of the 2019 Philippine elections here.

Bookmark this Rappler page for real-time election results.