The Philippine Consulate General in Dubai (Dubai PCG) hosted the Training on Automated Election System (AES) Electoral Board for Overseas Voting on 21-25 March 2022 at the Millennium Airport Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for participants from ten Middle East posts of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The participants from the ten foreign service posts that attended are from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv.

The three-day training was comprised of lectures and hands-on sessions for the participants who are part of their respective posts’ Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) and Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC).

The training included lectures on general instructions for Automated Elections System (AES) voting, which highlighted the role and responsibilities of the members of the election board and poll watchers, including the procedures for personal and postal voting, post counting procedures, and vote counting machines (VCM) technical procedures.

After the lectures and hands-on training, the SBEI members participants took the certification exam facilitated by the DOST which tested their knowledge of the technical procedures in handling and operating the vote counting machines that will be used during the month-long election that will start on 10 April 2022. A total of 12 participants from Dubai PCG were among the top 15 participants who gained the highest scores in the exam. 

There are about 1.7 million registered overseas voters all over the world. The Dubai PCG has the most number of registered overseas voters with a total of 191,779 voters. The overseas voting period is from 10 April 2022 to 9 May 2022. END