Law needed to allow Internet voting

By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: November 18, 2008

MANILA, Philippines—Filipino workers abroad would have a better chance of participating in local elections if Congress were to amend the election automation law to allow Internet voting, a top Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said on Tuesday.
Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said Internet voting appeared to be the best method for absentee voting for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In the 2007 midterm elections, the Comelec and the Department of Foreign Affairs introduced Internet voting to OFWs in Singapore to see how it would fare.

But the results were non-binding because the law did not explicitly provide for Internet voting.

“Although the voting in Singapore was successful, the senators said the results were not covered by the automation law," Ferrer said in an interview. "There is a need to study the process and to amend the law to include Internet voting.”

The Comelec official said seafarers would be the first sector of OFWs who would benefit from Internet voting. "Since most of them are ship-bound, they can just vote online," he said.

Ferrer counted 18,000 sea merchants in their registry. If Internet voting were instituted, the number could be three or four times more, he noted.

Apart from making it possible for Filipinos abroad to vote online, Ferrer said Congress could also pass a law removing the requirement that they must sign an affidavit of intent to return the Philippines within three years after the approval of their application for registration. Such provision would be impractical as many Filipinos living or working abroad could not afford to go back home often, he added.

According to labor department estimates, there are around eight million Filipinos working overseas.