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THE
Commission on Elections (Comelec) maintains that the
internet voting system to be pilot-tested for absentee
voting in Singapore is based on law, as the Senate
inquires into its legality Tuesday.
James
Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said internet voting for
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) is based on Republic
Act 9189 or the Overseas Absentee Voting Act where the
poll body “has been authorized to adopt a new
technology.”
He said
the law, approved in 2003, allows internet voting for
Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV).
Jimenez
was referring to Section 16.11 of the law: “The
Commission shall study the use of electronic mail,
Internet, or other secured networks in the casting of
votes, and submit a report thereon to the Joint
Congressional Oversight Committee.”
In a
telephone interview Tuesday, Jimenez said, “There is no
law prohibiting us [from doing] this.”
Sen.
Richard Gordon, head of the Senate Committee on Laws and
Constitutional Amendments and author of the poll
modernization law, questioned the legality of internet
voting for absentee voters, and called the Comelec to a
hearing.
Jimenez
said the poll body had sought the opinion of the
Solicitor General as to whether it is allowed to do
direct purchasing of technology for OAV before it
contracted the services of Spain-based Scytl which has a
hub in Singapore.
“The
Solgen said it was alright to use Internet voting and
that we can expedite the procurement process since the
company is the only one with the patent to do this
system,” Jimenez added.
The
price for the contract was pegged at P23.5 million, or
P877 per voter. An estimated 26,000 OFWs in
Singapore
are expected to join absentee voting for the midterm
polls.
Jimenez
said the poll body has already signed the contract with
Scytl and “it looks like it’s a go.”
Jimenez
hopes that the Senate will not attempt to stop the
Comelec from implementing Internet voting for OAV.
“I don’t
think that’s possible,” he ended. Earlier, Gordon said
he called the Senate hearing into the legality of
Comelec’s implementation of Internet voting because,
“the fact is, there is no law allowing Internet voting
to be implemented. Why are they so adamant to push
Internet voting? Meanwhile, here is as law (automated
elections law) that Comelec is mandated to implement and
they downright refuse to do it without even trying.”
Internet
voting, Gordon said, violates the law for lack of
essential safeguard or security features, such as a
provision for voter verified paper audit trail. He noted
that “Comelec has apparently found a way to implement
Internet voting for overseas Filipinos by obtaining an
exemption from public bidding from the solicitor
general. They now plan to use the Spanish company SCYTL
for Internet voting.”
But the
law is clearly not on Comelec’s side, Gordon explained,
as Internet voting cannot be allowed under the absentee
voting law. “The law requires that each ballot cast must
be placed in a special envelop, otherwise, it cannot be
counted. With Internet voting, this requirement cannot
be possibly satisfied,” said Gordon.
A Senate
inquiry will put to rest the questions surrounding the
legality and propriety of the Comelec’s move to
stubbornly pursue and implement Internet voting.
According to Gordon, Comelec’s insistence on
implementing internet voting, taken together with its
refusal to implement automation in the 2007 polls, make
for suspicious actions, to say the least. “How can they
implement something illegal and simultaneously refuse to
implement the law? He asked.
RA 8437
or the automated elections law was passed way back in
1993. The new law signed recently by the President
contained amendments to the already existing law.
“Comelec was with us working on the amendment from the
very beginning. There was enough time for them to
prepare. And there is still time to implement the law if
they only do their duty. But they never even imagined
trying to do it. They simply refuse to do it,” Gordon
said. |
