The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said the Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) will be hosting a series of online consultative meetings this week to present to its external stakeholders the online voting solutions of four different election systems providers for future elections.
In an advisory, the poll body identified the four companies as the following: Dominion Voting Systems, Indra, Smartmatic International, and Voatz.
Dominion Voting Systems will present on December 15 from 10 a.m.to 12 p.m. Indra will present on Dec. 16 from 3 p.m to 5 p.m.
Smartmatic International is scheduled to present on Dec. 17 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. while Voatz will present on Dec. 18 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, however, said that these solutions may not necessarily be deployed in 2022.
"The purpose of the consultation is to be able to gather enough information on online voting that can be presented to Congress for its consideration. If and when such a system is eventually put into action depends on Congress," he said in a statement.
Last May, the poll body said that it was also planning to test run the mobile voting application for possible use in future poll exercises.
Based on Section 28 of Republic Act No. 10590 “the Commission may explore other more efficient, reliable, and secure modes or systems, ensuring the secrecy and sanctity of the entire process, whether paper-based, electronic-based, or internet-based technology or such other latest technology available, for onsite and remote registration and elections and submit reports and/or recommendations to the Joint Oversight Congressional Committee."