The Commission on Elections has conducted a demonstration on how internet voting will be conducted for online voters ahead of the 2025 national and local elections.
The poll body invited eight multinational internet voting solutions providers to demonstrate in public their voting technology systems. From the demonstration, a team of COMELEC experts will then craft the terms of reference (TOR) for the internet voting for overseas Filipino voters. The poll body adds that the system has to be suited to Philippine situational requirements, with emphasis on cybersecurity, accuracy, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, convenience, sustainability, transparency, integrity, inclusivity, and most especially, auditability.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said that in the 2022 national elections, the government spent some P417 million to ensure that 600,000 Filipinos abroad were able to vote in the 2022 elections.
But the turnout was only 39% out of the 1.697 million registered overseas voters last year.
“The Filipinos are number one when it comes to internet use. We are also number one when it comes to texting. So we will have to prove to the entire world that because we are number one in such an area, then we can avail of this new technology and be allowed to vote,” Garcia added.
