The Philippine embassy needs at least 30,000 citizens here to register for their country's midterm elections in 2013.
The Commission on Elections requires foreign posts to have at least that many voters to use electronic voting machines. Overseas absentee voter registration will take place at the Abu Dhabi embassy and Dubai consulate from November 2 to October 31 next year.
"We have one year for Filipinos to register," said Grace Princesa, the ambassador to the UAE. "I'm hopeful that we'll have 30,000 registered voters to conduct automated elections at the embassy."
The 2010 presidential elections marked the country's first automated balloting, but the machines were not used in the Emirates.
The overseas absentee voters in the UAE had to cast their ballots at the embassy and consulate, while those in Singapore and Hong Kong fed machine-readable ballots into a scanning machine that then transmitted the results to the Philippines.
There are more than 600,000 Filipinos who live and work in the UAE. Of those, 200,000 are in Abu Dhabi, Ruwais, Al Gharbia and Al Ain, Ms Princesa said. The large expatriate community in the UAE and elsewhere could make overseas voters crucial, officials said.
Ms Princesa said she wanted to make the UAE a model post in terms of mass registration, starting with the midterm elections.
To achieve this, information about the registration and voting will be sent out through Bayanihan UAE, an umbrella group of 68 organisations in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, as well as church announcements, monthly embassy meetings and the media.
"Even if we're away from home, we are still concerned about what's happening in our country," said Bal Junio, the president of Bayanihan UAE. "We can't criticise our politicians if we haven't even voted. Last year, we had a low voter turnout."
In total, 17,041 voters in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and 30,679 voters in Dubai and the Northern Emirates registered for last year's presidential elections. However, only 7,917 voted.
Mr Junio said they planned to provide transportation for Musaffah, Al Ain and Ruwais residents to encourage more people to sign up as overseas absentee voters.
While at the embassy in Al Bateen, Filipinos can also visit the annual Paskuhan, or Christmas bazaar, held from December 2 to 30.
But Abu Dhabi resident Leonardo Mansilungan said the registration was a "waste of time".
"I've actually lost interest in the registration and the elections," said the 60-year-old civil engineer, who has been in the capital since 2002. "We usually face long queues and a lengthy registration process."
Prospective voters must register in person because biometric data, including facial features and fingerprints, and signatures need to be digitally recorded. Residents must also bring their passports.
Citizens who have registered previously and voted in the past two polls do not need to register again.
Filipinos who will be 18 or older on May 13, 2013, can register. Overseas absentee voters worldwide are given one month to cast their votes beginning on April 13, while those in the Philippines will vote on the election day, on May 13.
The 2013 midterm elections will be the fourth since overseas Filipinos were first granted voting rights in 2004.
rruiz@thenational.ae
The bio
Academics: Phd in strategic management in University of Wales
Number one caps: His best-seller caps are in shades of grey, blue, black and yellow
Reading: Is immersed in books on colours to understand more about the usage of different shades
Sport: Started playing polo two years ago. Helps him relax, plus he enjoys the speed and focus
Cars: Loves exotic cars and currently drives a Bentley Bentayga
Holiday: Favourite travel destinations are London and St Tropez
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
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