The House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms granted approval on Tuesday, August 1, for a proposal enabling overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to cast their votes through online means.
Reflecting on the past, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) emphasized the importance of internet voting as a means to facilitate the electoral process and enhance the participation of overseas Filipinos, thereby boosting voter turnout.
The Comelec provided this statement while observing the demonstration of internet voting in readiness for the upcoming 2025 national and local elections.
"We should now venture (into) the other modes of voting. And therefore during the en banc session, the en banc adopted a policy to proceed with internet voting, and we interpreted the provision of the law, authorizing the Commission on Elections to venture (into) other modes of voting such as internet voting," Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said.
Garcia recollected that solely for the 2022 elections, the Philippines allocated approximately PHP417 million to ensure the ability of 600,000 voters to participate in the voting process
The mentioned proposition, outlined in House Bill (HB) No. 6770, aims to make additional revisions to Republic Act (RA) 9189, commonly referred to as the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003, as modified by RA 10590, also known as the Overseas Voting Act of 2013.
During a session of the suffrage committee last August 1, Tuesday afternoon, HB No. 6770 was introduced by OFW Party-list Representative Marissa Magsino, who also holds the role of the primary proponent of the legislation
Magsino stated that passing a law regarding alternative voting methods "will establish a more precise legal foundation for the Comelec's execution of its powers, thus preventing potential uncertainties in the interpretation of the legislation."
Source: http://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/5/17/comelec-ofws-internet-voting.html
Photo credit from: Philippine News Agency