Comelec OKs Internet voting in Singapore

The Commission on Elections en banc approved Tuesday a proposal to allow Filipino absentee voters in Singapore to cast their ballot via the Internet. Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr, chairman of the poll body's committee on overseas absentee voting, said Scytel, a Spanish firm operating in Singapore, has offered the technology that would make it easy for qualified Filipino voters in the island state to cast their vote in the May elections. "I have not entered into a contract with them because we are still reviewing the Letter of Intent," Tuason said in an interview shortly after the Comelec gave the go-signal to pursue the project. Tuason said Singapore was chosen to be the pilot area for Internet voting because of the area is compact. Every household also has at least one computer unit and there are a number of Internet shops that are readily accessible to overseas workers. There are 26,000 registered overseas absentee voters in Singapore. Voters will have to log on to the Comelec website and be given a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to be able to view a list of senatorial candidates and party-list organizations participating in the May 14 elections. Once the voter clicks the names of his chosen candidates, he click a button to send this information to the Comelec head office where his votes will be automatically counted. The project would not be submitted to a public bidding. Tuason said the Solicitor General gave its clearance to the poll body to engage in direct purchasing, as provided under Section 16 of the procurement law. He assured that the new system could not be hacked because it has a security patent. About 20 computers would be set up at the Philippine Embassy in Singapore for Internet voting, Tuason said, adding that the Comelec would release P23.5 million to acquire the technology. One of the contraints in absentee balloting for overseas workers was the voter to go to the embassy or consulate in the country where they work. "Now they can vote even in their homes as long as they have Internet access," Tuason said, referring to the Filipino absentee voters in Singapore. Absentee voters have 30 days until 3 p.m. on May 14 (Philippine time) to cast their votes. According to the Comelec website, the Overseas Absentee Voting law provides for two manners by which the overseas absentee voter may vote. One is personal voting where the registered voter has to present himself before the election inspector for voting at the post where he is a registered voter in order to cast his vote. Personal voting was done in 70 countries in 2004, covering 245,627 overseas absentee voters. The other is voting by mail where the registered voter will receive an envelope containing the ballot which he has to accomplish and send the same through the mail addressed to the post where he is a registered voter. In the 2004 elections, voting by mail, which is readily the exception to the general rule of personal voting, was adopted in Japan, Canada and United Kingdom (including Ireland) owing to the efficiency of the mailing system in these countries. For seafarers, the Comelec has relaxed the voting rules by allowing them to cast their ballots in the ports where they are during the absentee voting period. Of the 359,297 overseas registrants in 2004, only four per cent was covered by voting by mail. The Comelec earlier reported that 132,000 overseas absentee voters beat the Oct 31, 2006 deadline for the registration of overseas Filipino workers and dual citizens qualified to cast their ballot for the May 14 senatorial and party-list elections. The poll body noted significant increase in the registered OAVs in the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan, and Singapore. GMANews.TV