A mock election to test Internet voting was “enthusiastically” accepted by Filipinos in Singapore, the Commission on Elections said yesterday.
“We have started the Internet voting here. It is a pilot test and non-binding (but) it would seem that the Filipinos here are very enthusiastic in participating in this pilot test,” Commissioner Florentino Tuazon said in a teleconference from Singapore.
In the 20-day mock election, the poll body used the names of 37 Filipino heroes and 15 Filipino bands as candidates for senators and party-list groups seeking seats in Congress, he added.
Tuazon said Filipinos in Singapore have “manifested that they want to be relieved of the mano-mano (manual) system of voting.”
“Most of them are very ecstatic in participating in this pilot test, not for anything else, but because they want reform in our electoral process,” he said.
The P23.5 million project is being undertaken by Scytl Consortium, a Spain-based company.
Its technology is also being used in Australia, the United States, Spain, Finland and Switzerland.
Around 6,000 Filipinos who are experts in information technology have expressed intention to try to penetrate the Scytl system to check its security.
But Tuazon said that as of press time, no one has been able to hack into the system.
“So far, no one has penetrated the system,” he said. “The good news is that as early as 7:01 am, somebody voted already. The voting in this pilot test opened at 7 a.m.”
After the pilot test, the Comelec will send an “extensive and detailed report” to the Advisory Council on Poll Automation to see if it can be implemented for overseas voting in the 2010 elections.
The council is composed of the Comelec, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Computer Society Foundation, Information and Technology Foundation of the Philippines and University of the Philippines’ College of Engineering. – Sheila Crisostomo