PDP Laban seeks court stay on online voting

Metro Manila, Philippines - A month before the midterm elections, PDP Laban filed a petition with the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday, April 3, to stop the implementation of online voting for overseas voters.

The party of former President Rodrigo Duterte said it wants to nullify Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 11061, 11079, and 11081 – which all contain general instructions on overseas voting – and Resolution 11076 or the general instructions for the Bangsamoro parliamentary polls.

The petitioners said Comelec “abused its discretion in promulgating” the resolutions, thus their unconstitutionality.

Seeking for the issuance of a temporary restraining order, the petitioners said online voting is "devoid of any basis in our existing legal framework."

“The assailed resolutions have illegally set up an automated election system (AES) which is non-compliant with the minimum system capabilities required by Sec. 7 of the election automation law,” the petition read.

“The assailed resolutions illegally implement a remote online voting for overseas voters using digital ballots,” it added.

The petitioners said the resolutions disregarded the election automation law which requires manual vote counting.

The Comelec and the Department of Foreign Affairs are the respondents to the petition.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia welcomed PDP’s move but said their work will continue.

“This will not stop us from our ongoing preparations especially considering that the overseas voting will start on April 13,” he said.

There are 1.2 million registered overseas voters for this year’s elections.