HONG KONG'S 120,000 Filipino domestic helpers will be able to cast an absentee vote for the first time in the 1998 presidential election.
This follows the third reading of a bill in the House of Representatives and the Senate enfranchising the Philippines' 4.2 million overseas contract workers into the electoral process.
The head of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Blas Ople, said the bill was undergoing refinement before it was presented to President Fidel Ramos for executive signature enacting it into law.
Senator Ople said that in the 1998 election, overseas workers would only be allowed to vote for president, vice-president and senators, but this would be extended to congressmen and local officials in later elections.
He said votes would be cast through the national embassies and consulates and other authorised offices in each country.
Local domestic helpers were divided over the plan.
Maria Lourdes Tan, who has been working in the territory for one year, said she was not keen to cast her vote even if it were made possible.