Philippines election commission mulls online voting

Manila: The Philippines Commission on Elections is studying the possibility of allowing internet voting so that citizens working abroad can exercise their right to suffrage.

Commission on Elections Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer said internet voting would enable thousands of Filipinos and Filipinas working abroad - and in particular seafarers - to elect their next national leaders come the 2010 elections.

Ferrer said internet voting had proved feasible in 2007, when hundreds of Philippines citizens in Singapore were able to cast their votes for their favoured senatorial candidates. He said that the challenge now was to replicate this success and make it work for seafarers.

Aside from this, the biggest hurdle confronting election administrators was the lack of an enabling law that would legitimise internet voting.

"Senators have said that, presently, there is no law concerning internet voting. Due to this fact, the electoral laws must be amended so that voting via the internet is legitimised," Ferrer said

There are an estimated 250,000 Philippines citizens serving mostly on foreign flagged vessels who are eligible to vote.

Ferrer said that during the 2007 mid-term elections, some 18,000 seafarers were able to cast their votes via the internet thanks to the absentee vote pilot program in Singapore.

In previous elections, absentee voters voted either in consular offices and embassies abroad or, in the case of seafarers, selected their candidates of choice by mail.