High Voter Turnout and Weekend Open House Highlight Philippine Elections in Geneva
Left photo: Mabini Hall of the Philippine Chancery served as the venue of the Philippine elections in Geneva. Second photo: Permanent Representative Evan Garcia flanked by Ambassador Manuel A.J. Teehankee cast their ballots on the first day of overseas elections in Geneva. (Geneva PCG photo)
GENEVA 17 May 2022 – One day before the May 09 National Elections, the Consulate General, in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), opened the PCG Ko, Bukas ng Linggo Open House to enable Filipinos to access passport and other consular services as they cast their ballots on the last weekend of overseas voting.
As of May 9, the voter turnout percentage among Filipinos living in the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud reached a record-high 70.95% of registered voters.
The high voter turnout was due to heightened interest in the elections among community members and the social media campaign launched by Filipino community organizations and the Consulate General. Of the total number of registrants of 2,496 Filipinos under Post’s jurisdiction, about 1,771 Filipinos or 70.95% accounted for actual ballots cast.
From 07-08 May, an additional 180 Filipinos went to the chancery to personally cast their ballots at the Consulate General. In the Open House, nine clients availed themselves of passport and/ or consular services while 12 applicants applied for overseas employment certificate (OEC) and OWWA services. More Filipinos with consular, passport or labor-related concerns availed themselves of free consultations. Many Filipino clients, mostly workers, gave positive feedback to the Open House.
The weekend Open House is held around 2-3 times a year and supports the public service- oriented objectives of the Consulate General for the convenience of consular clients in response to the growing needs of and complexity of consular concerns of Filipinos in Post’s jurisdiction. END
For more information, visit https://www.genevapm.dfa.gov.ph, https://www.facebook.com/PHinGeneva/ or https://www.instagram.com/phingeneva/.