DUBAI, UAE (May 16) – Only eight of the 11 Senatorial bets of President Rodrigo Duterte, made it to “Magic 12” in the recently concluded Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) midterm elections in the UAE.
The month-long OAV which started on April 13 at the Philippine missions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, closed simultaneously with Philippine voting time at exactly 14:00 GMT+4 on Monday, May 13.
Former Philippine National Police Chief Ronald “Bato”dela Rosa garnered the highest number of votes at 35,473, based on the full, unofficial counting of election returns released by the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) in the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai and the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The president’s former special assistant Christopher “Bong” Go takes up the second lead with 34,019 votes, while Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos runs third with 32,317 votes.
Pia Cayetano, who came in fourth during the initial counting of ballots, has been bumped off to 5th place with 31,151 votes by neophyte and YouTube sensation Doc Willie Ong, who got a total of 32,233 votes.
Re-electionist Cynthia Villar, who leads the senatorial race in the Philippines, landed on 6th place with only 27,869 votes in the UAE polls. She is followed closely by the 7th placer, former presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino with 25,336 votes.
Former Biliran Congressman, Glenn Chong is the 8th chosen senator by the OFWs in the UAE with 20,615.
Sonny Angara, who is known as among the most hardworking and productive members of Congress made it to ninth place with 19,871 votes. Tenth placer Larry Gadon, who is not a Duterte-endorsed candidate garnered 19,653 votes, while Duterte’s bet and re-electionist Koko Pimentel ended up with 16,995 votes in 11th place.
Former presidential candidate Grace Poe, who is currently second in the senatorial race in the Philippines, only placed 12th in the UAE polls with 15,778 votes.
Former Interior and Local Government secretary Raffy Alunan, the last addition to the Duterte’s list, only got 14,256 votes which landed him on 14th place in the final count.
Duterte-endorsed candidates Zajid “Dong” Mangudadato and JV Ejercito also failed to make it to top 12 landing only at 15th place (13,790 votes ) and 16th place (11,957 votes) respectively.
Meanwhile, among the 181 party-list groups vying for 59 seats in the May midterm elections, the Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS), which is supported by radio personality Erwin Tulfo, wins by a landslide in UAE with a total of 11,700 votes.
AA Kasosyo, a party-list backed by former Palace communications assistant secretary Mocha Uson, trailed second but only got a total of 4,528 votes.
Voters Turnout
Dubai and the Northern Emirates had 28,487 actual votes, which is 13.57% of the 209, 862 voters who registered for this year’s elections. In the 2013 midterm elections, Dubai registered a 6.35% turnout or 3,545 of the 55,842 registered voters.
“At least we have about 14 percent of our electorate here in Dubai who takes the right of suffrage very seriously. Here we have an element of society who is thinking of the overseas of diaspora in terms of how they can participate in a healthy democracy in the Philippines and hopefully it would pay forward,” said Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes about the voters turnout in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Hjayceelyn M. Quintana said the month-long Philippine overseas midterm elections in the UAE saw a better turnout compared to the 2013 midterm elections, with an overall turnout of 14 percent.
The 2013 OAV elections in UAE only recorded 8.8 percent voters turnout.
“This was a month-long process but done in a very orderly manner. It was an automated election system and everything went very smooth. The average time taken was 3 to 5 minutes to select 12 senate members from a total of 62 candidates,” Quintana said in an interview with Dubai broadsheet, Khaleej Times. –Henri Abenis-Macahilo/NewsLine.ph
