Scrap Internet voting, Comelec urged

An election lawyer om Sunday urged the Commission on Elections to scrap plans to use Internet voting technology for overseas absentee voting (OAV) in next year’s polls in the absence of clear-cut rules governing the plan.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the Comelec should stick to the existing mode of voting for overseas Filipino workers since some provisions of the Overseas Voting Act of 2013 were vague.

“Definitely, the election body should wait for clearer provisions of the law allowing Internet voting and its mechanisms,” Macalintal told reporters, adding that under the law, the Comelec was merely allowed “to explore” Internet-based technology for OAV.

He also raised possible security issues—such as the safety of the ballots and the real identity of online voters—should the Comelec push through with pilot-testing the plan.

“It would take time for Internet voting in our country to be accepted, knowing especially that losers always cry that they were cheated,” Macalintal said.–Jocelyn R. Uy