MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday, June 25, signed a deal with the joint venture led by Filipino company SMS Global Technologies to deliver an online voting tool that will be used by most overseas Filipinos in 2025.

SMS Global Technologies, in partnership with US-based firm Sequent Tech, will help the Comelec usher in a new era of overseas voting, which in the past had been either manual, automated, mail-in, but not internet-based or via one’s computer or mobile phone.

Present during Tuesday’s ceremonial signing event were Comelec Chairman George Garcia, Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, SMS Global Technologies Incorporated president Anthony Christian Angeles, and Sequent Tech’s chief technology officer Eduardo Robles.

The Comelec is hoping that the introduction of online voting would boost voter participation among migrant Filipinos, as overseas turnout in the 2022 polls was only at 38% – way below the domestic voter turnout at 84%.

The poll body has said the new mode of voting will ease the voting process for seafarers and other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have to travel a long distance just to cast their ballots in the nearest Philippine consulate or embassy.

Garcia also addressed fears that an online voting tool would be vulnerable to breaches.

“Internet voting is no different from modern technology such as internet banking or paying bills using the internet. We checked their system, and we found that the joint venture fully complied with our prescribed terms of reference,” the poll chief said in Filipino.

Winning bidder

The joint venture of Sequent Tech and SMS Global Technologies won the procurement process after submitting a bid worth P112 million, undercutting the next lowest bidder, Voatz and its local partners, which offered their services for P435 million.

Philippine laws dictate that the firm with the lowest calculated and responsive bid gets the project.

The Comelec’s maximum budget for the contract was P465.8 million.

The Comelec under previous leaderships tiptoed on adopting online voting, citing the Overseas Voting Act of 2013 that provided that a new law was necessary in order for internet voting to materialize.

The 2013 law, says the Comelec, is authorized to explore other ways – such as internet-based technology – to make overseas voting more efficient, but results of its evaluation must be submitted to Congress.

When veteran lawyer George Garcia took helm of the Comelec, he insisted that no legislation or prior approval from Congress is needed to shift to online voting, arguing that Congress yields to the expertise of the commission in understanding the peculiarities of overseas voting. – Rappler.com