ABU DHABI // Dozens of voters and poll-watchers gathered at the Philippine embassy on Monday night as officials tallied their votes in the country’s national elections.
Back in their home country, Rodrigo Duterte held the lead over his rivals as votes were counted amid poll-related violence in the Philippines that left at least 10 people dead. The mayor of Davao City with a pledge to fight crime and reduce traffic had 38.7 per cent of 12.6 million votes, with 75 per cent of polling stations reporting. He was followed by rival Mar Roxas, in second place, and senator Grace Poe.
After polls in the UAE closed at 1pm, Constancio Vingno Jr, the Philippine ambassador to the UAE, said the secure digital (SD) cards containing votes cast would be uploaded in a canvassing machine and copies printed. The votes would be consolidated with those cast at 12 poll precincts at the Philippine consulate in Dubai.
“We will be canvassing, or consolidating, the contents of each SD card which are the election returns or the votes cast over the past month,” said Mr Vingno, who served the chairman of the special board of canvassers.
“We will then back up the SD cards and transmit the votes electronically to the Commission on Elections in Manila.”
The number of voters arriving to cast their ballots was a little more than a trickle between 5am and 6am, while a massive last-minute surge of voters began at 11am until polls closed at 1pm.
One of the early bird voters, Lucrecio About Jr, 54, a marine weather forecaster in Abu Dhabi for seven years, cast his vote shortly after 6am.
“I’m a third-time voter,” he said. “Here in the UAE, our work is our top priority but it’s still our civic duty to vote. I’ve been weighing my choices and looking at the other candidates’ credentials and platforms.”
Of 72,661 Filipinos who had registered at the Abu Dhabi embassy, 24,137 voted, according to Manila’s foreign affairs department. The votes were to be consolidated with ballots cast at the consulate in Dubai. Officials said 38,008 of the 122,953 registered voters from Dubai and the Northern Emirates had voted in Dubai.
There were five candidates for president, six candidates for vice-president, 50 senatorial candidates and 115 party-list groups. Voters chose 12 senators and one party-list group, which represented certain sectors.
“I’ve just been too busy,” said Rodelio Areglo, 36, a procurement officer in Abu Dhabi. “I just want to exercise my right to vote, just like everyone else here.”
Voting was a family affair for some, as several parents cast their votes with children in tow.
Shiela Francisco, 41, a laboratory technician, queued with her husband Christopher, 41, and their 19-month-old daughter Angela Heart, .
“We’re voting for the future of our children,” she said. “I’ve been here for eight years and my husband and I don’t usually participate in the elections. But we’re now here to make a difference, to elect good leaders for our country.”
The poll was the fifth that Filipinos overseas had been allowed to take part in since they were granted voting rights in 2004. Results are expected to be announced on Tuesday.
rruiz@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Bloomberg
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
DUBAI%20BLING%3A%20EPISODE%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENetflix%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKris%20Fade%2C%20Ebraheem%20Al%20Samadi%2C%20Zeina%20Khoury%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
