The overseas absentee voting (OAV) registration for Filipinos in Saudi Arabia ended Aug. 31 with a total of 15,960 registrants. The highest number of registrants was recorded in Riyadh with a total of 7,163, followed by Jeddah with 5,401, and Eastern Province with total tally of 3,396. The total number of qualified absentee voters now in Saudi Arabia who can vote in the May 10, 2010 election to be held at designated election centers in the Kingdom is 97,243, including the 15,960 new voters who responded to the registration drive conducted by the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah as of end of August and the 81,283 already recorded in the Commission on Election (Comelec) lists of qualified overseas voters. The 97,243 OAV voters who registered at the end of August is only about eight percent of the estimated 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia. The low turnout of registrants is due to the lack of time of majority of Filipinos to register and the distance of the registration center from their worksite. In this year's OAV, Filipino registered voters overseas will elect a president, vice president, 12 senators and a party
