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PROCEED
at your own risk.
This was
the warning aired by members of a joint congressional
oversight panel amid plans by the Commission on
Elections to go ahead with voting via internet in
Singapore during the May 14 mid-term elections, despite
concerns over the absence of a law that would allow the
exercise to be legally conducted by the Comelec.
At a
public hearing Tuesday, Sen. Richard Gordon, committee
chairman, warned that the Comelec could be charged with,
among others, technical malversation of public funds if
it proceeds to spend, without an appropriate law, P23
million to conduct Internet voting for some 26,000
Filipino voters based in Singapore.
Sen.
Juan Ponce Enrile observed that the Comelec may overstep
its authority should it ignore the misgivings of members
of the oversight committee and insist on Internet
voting.
“While
the Comelec has jurisdiction over electoral exercises,
it must abide by the rules enacted by Congress,” Enrile
explained, saying Comelec officials are taking a risk if
they go ahead with Internet voting without a clear
mandate.
Appearing before the oversight committee, former Comelec
chairman Christian Monsod maintained that the poll body
had no legal basis for conducting Internet voting.
Monsod said the Comelec would be setting “a very
dangerous precedent” in relying on what he called a
“general authority” to justify its insistence on holding
Internet voting.
“The
Comelec relies on the absentee voting law where nothing
authorizes it to conduct Internet voting,” Monsod said,
adding that one provision in the supposed authority
cited by Comelec allows it only to study and report on
the possibility of holding voting via Internet, but not
to implement it right away as Comelec wants to do. He
added that another provision in the absentee voting law
allowed transmitting results of the counting of votes by
Internet but not voting itself. |
