Online voting system for overseas voters undergoes post-qualification process

A demonstration of the online voting system for overseas voters in the 2025 elections has been conducted as part of the post qualification activity for the bidder.

The joint venture of SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech, Inc. showed how their online voting system works during the activity on Thursday, according to Maki Pulido’s report on Unang Balita.

“It’s a webpage system. Puwede kang mag-enroll sa isang gadget at puwede kang bumuto at mag-validate doon sa ibang gadget,” said Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson Rex Laudiangco.

(It’s a webpage system. You can enroll on one gadget, and you can vote and validate on another gadget.)

While the bidder’s online voting system is simple and has no new features, the Comelec said it has a tight online security.

Aside from basic information and identification cards, voters will be asked for a live selfie during their enrollment to the online voting system, which will serve as protection from threats from artificial intelligence.

“The system now is matching if he’s alive and checking that his face in ID matches his face,” Sequent Tech vice president Luis Nabelrgoi Puente said.

Laudiangco said those who will enroll to the online voting system will be checked if they are included in the database of registered overseas voters.

If overseas voters face problems during the enrollment, they may seek help from the embassy. If they have no gadgets for online voting, they may also cast their votes at the embassy.

According to the bidder, the system can be audited in any stages of the voting process.

“The system can verify that each ballot is cast, recorded, counted correctly, and nothing tampered with it,” Sequent Tech CEO and co-founder Shai Bargil said.

With the online voting system, overseas voters can print a copy of their ballots unlike in regular elections where it is prohibited.

In a bidding in April, joint venture SMS Global Technologies, Inc. and Sequent Tech, Inc. had the lowest calculated bid for the 2025 Online Voting and Counting System contract.

The joint venture offered to do the project for P112 million. The approved budget for the contract is P465,810,926.57.

Due to this, the joint venture is subjected to post-qualification evaluation. If there is no issue in the evaluation, the enrollment to online voting for overseas voters is expected to start in December.

The online voting for overseas voters is set from April 11 to May 12, 2025, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to the Comelec.

In the 2022 elections, only around 30% of the 1.6 million registered overseas voters participated. With the online voting system, the Comelec is expecting it to increase to 80%. —Joviland Rita/KBK, GMA Integrated News