Internet voting eyed to convince more overseas Pinoys to vote

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is proposing Internet voting to encourage more overseas Filipinos, including contract workers, to participate in the May 2016 elections.

“The registration of overseas Filipino voters, we have no problem. We have up to October next year and we are targeting two million voters. Our problem is how these two million will be able to vote,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. told journalists on the sidelines of the House plenary budget deliberations.

“We’re proposing e-mail, Internet, we’re trying to use a new system of voting but this will require the approval of Congress. The system now is you have to go to the consulate or the embassy (to cast your ballot), that’s why very few vote,” he said.

Brillantes said the Comelec considered the issuance of a resolution to provide for Internet voting and other alternative modes for overseas Filipino voters.

“But that might be questioned because the overseas voting law requires that a voter must go to the nearest embassy, consulate or diplomatic post to cast his or her vote,” he said.

The Comelec chief pointed out that there is no problem with this requirement in such places as Hong Kong or Singapore.

“But in places like Saudi Arabia, where there are only two consulates in Riyadh and Jeddah, and the United States, a voter has to travel far to the designated voting places.”

Brillantes said the Comelec would have to provide security safeguards against possible hacking if Internet voting would be used.

“Because if you use the Internet, you don’t know who is voting,” he said.

He said the commission is now going over several Internet voting bills and would soon submit its recommendation to Congress.

He added that the legislature would have to approve the proposed legislation in mid-2015 so it could be used in time for the combined presidential, congressional and local elections in May 2016.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, as of June 30 this year, at least a million overseas Filipino voters have registered.

Of this number, the Middle East and Africa accounted for the biggest share with 439,463, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 317,692, the Americas with 168,209, and Europe with 114,747.

Overseas Filipinos, mostly workers, are estimated to number more than eight million.