Comelec to adopt manual, automated systems for overseas absentee voting

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has come up with the guidelines on the distribution and submission of election returns for Philippine posts abroad adopting the automated election system (AES) on May 9.

In Resolution No. 10063, the Comelec said there are two voting systems that will be adopted for overseas absentee voting (OAV): the manual election system and the AES.

For the AES, the first copy of the election returns would be delivered to the Special Board of Canvassers while the second copy shall be given to Congress, addressed to the Senate President, and the third copy to the Comelec.

The fourth copy would be for Comelec’s citizens pollwatch groups, the fifth copy for the dominant majority party, the sixth for the dominant minority, the seventh for posting and an eighth copy would be deposited inside the compartment of the ballot boxes for valid ballots. 

The 9th to 18th copies shall be for the 10 accredited major national party-list, excluding their dominant majority and minority parties.  

The 19th to 22nd copies would be for the national broadcast or print media as determined by the Comelec for the widest possible coverage.

Earlier, the Comelec announced that overseas election in 30 posts will be automated. These are Agana, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Ottawa, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, all in North and Latin America;

In London, Madrid, Milan and Rome, in the European region; Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo in the Asia Pacific region; Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Manama, Polo al Khobar, Riyadh and Tel Aviv in the Middle East.

This is significantly higher than the seven posts that had automated elections in 2013, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

There are some 1.4 million registered voters for OAV whose month-long voting starts on April 9.