Comelec: Internet voting for 2025 polls seen to increase registered OF voters

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 11) – The implementation of internet voting for the 2025 midterm elections could increase the number of registered Overseas Filipino (OF) voters by up to five million, the Commission on Elections said.

“We honestly believe that in the event that we will be able to use internet voting for overseas Filipinos, baka po mga four to five million ang magpapa-rehistro [maybe four to five million will register],” the poll body’s chairperson George Garcia told the House Appropriations Committee during its budget deliberation on Monday.

A two-year long registration period for the May 2025 elections began in Dec. 2022 and will end in Dec. 2024, Garcia said.

He added: “it can only be announced that indeed the Comelec ngayon po 400,000 pa lang ang nagpapa-rehistro sa kasalukuyan sa ating [only 400,000 have registered so far for the 2025 elections among our] OFs when in fact, more or less, we have 12 million Filipinos abroad.”

Garcia shared that OF voter turnout during the 2022 national elections was 39% or about 600,000 out of some 1,692,000 OF voters.

He also explained that the system — which has an allocation of ₱794 million in the Comelec's 2024 budget — would be secure as the agency could verify and authenticate OF voters through biometric data.

Last May, Comelec greenlit the use of online voting for the 2025 midterm elections.

READ: Comelec OKs online voting for OFWs for May 2025 polls

Internet voting was not implemented during the 2022 national elections but test runs for the 2025 polls were conducted in 2021 and showed promising results.