MANILA, Philippines – Philippine
Election’s internet voting and the use of the direct recording electronic (DRE)
system might be piloted during 2016 elections, the Commission on Elections
(Comelec) said.
The Comelec would also examine the use
of the biometrics apparatus for the verification of the voter’s lists during
elections, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said.
“In our resolution, we adopted in
general the recommendation of the CAC (Comeled Advisory Council) to use more
than one technology…We can have these improvements in the technology,” he said.
The adoption the CAC recommendations
is contained in Comelec Minute Resolution 14-0628 dated Aug. 29.
Brillantes said the DRE uses
touch-screen or touch-pad technology, wherein the voters just tap the names of
their candidates.
He said it would be pilot-tested in
highly-urbanized areas such as Metro Manila, Metro Davao and Metro Cebu for
easy monitoring.
He seconded Commissioner
Lucenito Tagle said that the following of the amendment of the Republic Act
10590, or the amended Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2013 for having internet
voting for overseas absentee voting (OAV) during the 2016 elections.
“What we want is Internet voting for
seafarers since they are at sea and they can easily cast their votes online.
But definitely, we will look to pilot test this in some countries so we can
increase the voter turnout, which has been our perennial problem,” he said.
Brilliantes said the Comelec would
purchase 40,000 other machines that are also optical mark reader (OMR) in
nature like the PCOS machines.
Yet, he clarified that the additional
machines will come from the company which will attend the bidding.
