How, when overseas Filipinos can cast votes
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has finalized the voting mode for 1.2 million Filipino overseas voters in 200 countries and territories.
In a minute resolution approved on Feb. 2 and made public on Thursday, the commission said overseas voters in 36 countries and territories may vote either by mail or in person at 93 designated Philippine embassies or consulates general (PCGs) or, in the case of Taiwan, at branches of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco).
Postal voting
Voting in person is the specified mode for those in East Timor, Fujian province in China under the PCG in Xiamen, the parts of China under the jurisdiction of the PCG in Shanghai, Türkiye, Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tunisia.
On the other hand, postal voting will be the specified mode in the areas of China under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, the PCGs in Chongqing and Guangzhou, and Jiangxi province under the PCG in Xiamen.
The same mode applies to voters in Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Myanmar, Northern Cyprus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Benin, Central African Republic, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Togo, Algeria and Chad.
The rest of the overseas voters will cast their ballots online using an internet-based voting platform provided by the joint venture (JV) of SMS Global Technologies Inc. and Sequent Tech.
Disallowed
In May last year, the JV was awarded the Comelec contract for an online voting and counting system worth P112 million.
Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia earlier said the poll body has to resort to either in-person or postal voting because several countries have policies disallowing online voting.
Ballots cast in person or sent through mail will be counted in embassies, consulates and Meco branches by automated counting machines provided by the Comelec’s poll automation partner Miru Systems JV.
Window period
Overseas voters may start casting their ballots from April 13 until May 12. They will be voting only for 12 senators and one party-list group.
Data posted on the Comelec website showed that, as of Jan. 3, there are 1,241,690 overseas voters, 99 percent of whom are land-based. Of this figure, 805,358 are female and 436,332 are male.
Most voters are in the Middle East and Africa with 453,502; followed by Asia Pacific, 383,392; North and Latin Americas, 259,415; and Europe, 145,381.
