Overseas absentee voting in the May 10, 2010 elections will be automated in Hong Kong and Singapore which have big concentrations of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) registered for next year’s major political exercise.

In 172 other countries where there are OFWs registered voters, the Comelec, due to budgetary and manpower considerations, will adopt personal voting, voting by mail, and modified voting by mail, according to Commissioner Armando C. Velasco, chairman of the Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV).

Velasco said Comelec earlier considered to automate overseas voting in at least four countries but it was finally pared down to only two after taking into account the number of registered voters, accessibility of voters to the Post, and the effectiveness of the modes of voting used in the Post during the 2004 and 2007 elections.

In personal voting, voters are required to troop to the Posts to cast their votes. In 2007, 26 Posts adopted personal voting representing 65 percent of the total overseas absentee voters.

The Posts, under Republic Act Act 9189 or The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, refer to the Philippines embassies, consulates, foreign service establishments and other Philippine government agencies maintaining offices abroad having jurisdiction over the places where the overseas absentee voters temporarily reside.

Filipino seafarers who have registered for next year’s polls have the privilege to vote at any Post. The Posts are allocated electoral mails so that seafarers may cast their votes in case their ships are docked in ports situated in the host countries.