Yesterday I cast my vote for the national elections in the Philippines via OAV, or Overseas Absentee Voting here at the new building of the Jeddah consulate. The voting process was very easy, there's not a lot of people who voted that day, so there's no queue.
Before I proceeded to the polling precinct, I searched first for my name in the list of voters, this is to make sure that I am really a registered voter in Jeddah. While searching for my name, a man came up to me and tried to help find my name, which I thought a gesture of kindness, but then after I found my name and my sequence number, he secretly showed me a piece of paper with a name of a candidate from his hand, perhaps a senate candidate or a party list candidate which I didn't quite read.
After searching for my name and sequence number, I went straight to a small room where the actual voting takes place. The 2 members of the BEI (Board of Election Inspectors) who take charge of the precinct asked my name, sequence number and my ID. After checking, they gave me an empty folded ballot. It only took me less than 10 minutes to vote for president, vice president, 12 senators and a party list group. After I completed writing my candidates on the ballot, I dropped it inside a small brown paper box (and posing for the camera while doing it. lol!).
It was a great experience. That was my first time to vote outside the Philippines and only my second to vote in any elections. I've done my part. I really feel that I've fulfilled one of my duties to my country, I just hope that everything turns out the way it should be.
