An alliance of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Middle East Sunday urged local officials to recheck the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV) list over fears that it is “contaminated.”

“We are urging the OAV Secretariat and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Committee on OAV to conduct re-checking of the voters list for overseas absentee voters to ensure that it is clean and has not been contaminated of double registrants,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said.

Migrante-ME also expressed worries that the OAV list may not be cleaned in time for the overseas absentee voting next month, which is a month ahead of the conduct of elections in the Philippines.

Total OAV registrants up to the August 31, 2009 deadline reached 589,830, according to the Comelec Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV).

Citing statistics from COAV, Monterona said there were 364,946 “active” overseas absentee voters between 2003 and 2007, while COAV registered about 224,000 between Feb. 1 and Aug. 31, 2009, bringing the total registrants to 589,830.

“The Comelec-COAV must clearly explain how it arrived at 364,946 ‘active’ overseas absentee voters from 2003 and 2007 given that every OFW normally signs two-year contracts, unless the OFWs were re-hired by their respective employers,” he pointed out.