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| The page that caused the ruckus |
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disputed claims made on social media by several overseas Filipino voters that the ongoing internet-based voting is rigged as a review of the ballots they cast showed names of candidates they did not vote for.
Many of the complainants showed as proof screen shots of a box with jumbled letters and numbers underneath the sign “This is your ballot content”. A few names of actual candidates in the 2025 mid-term elections showed up amid the mostly unreadable content.
The page is accessed through a QR code given to them after they cast their ballot.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
One of the complainants, Jefferson Bonoan, a
Filipino worker based in Singapore, posted on his Facebook account screenshots
of the ballot he cast on Monday, and the contents of the landing page of the QR
code sent him.
While the screen shot of his ballot showed him voting
for 10 candidates of the PDP-Laban party and two from the administration’s
slate, his scanned QR code revealed names of those he did not vote for,
including Manny Pacquiao of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas and Mimi Doringo of
Makabayan.
Other voters in South Korea and United Arab
Emirates who publicly declared voting for senatorial candidates endorsed by
former President Rodrigo Duterte made the same allegation.
The posts prompted widespread calls by other overseas
Filipinos for their cast ballots to show the actual names of candidates they
voted for.
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| Garcia explains the apparent glitch to reporters |
But in a talk with reporters on Monday, the second day
of internet voting, Comelec Chair George Garcia said the full lineup of
candidates chosen can be viewed and reviewed by the voter before the vote is
cast. This will disappear once the “cast” button is pressed to prevent
vote-buying.
“Hindi namin talaga ibibigay ang mga pangalan
(ng mga binoto) pagkatapos mai-cast kasi pwedeng gamitin sa vote buying,” Garcia
said. (We really cannot give the names of the candidates chosen after the
ballot is cast because this can be used for vote buying).
He explained that the random letters and numbers,
and names of candidates that show up after the QR code is scanned is a security
feature of the system, and does not reflect the actual ballot that was cast.
“Once these encrypted codes are translated into
human-readable language after the end of election hours on May 12, that’s when
they will confirm that the votes they cast are for the correct candidates. This
is our way to secure your votes,” he pointed out.
Comelec, he said, is the only one with the
capability to translate the encrypted script on QR codes to reveal the actual
votes cast.
He assured the public that the internet voting system
is “verifiable and auditable” and was rigorously checked before poll watchers National
Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections and the Parish Pastoral Council for
Responsible Voting and other stakeholders.
Garcis lamented that there appeared to be an effort
by some Filipinos to spread misinformation to discredit online voting.
Some technology experts, however, laid the blame
squarely on the Comelec for the confusion that resulted from the unreadable
script which was supposed to contain the ballot that was cast by the voter.
“That kind of information is not meant for end users
or the general public but for IT developers,” said an expert.
“They should have thought of masking the information
and turning it into something more understandable for everyone, without
comprising the security of the vote as they mentioned,” said the expert.
Another who posted online said the code did not
appear to be fully encrypted because it showed the full names of some candidates.
In any case, he and several other IT practitioners said the encryption process
should have been done in the back end, so nothing would be visible to the
public for data privacy and security.
Overseas voting for Filipinos will run for 30 days until 7 p.m. on May 12 Manila time, which coincides with the closing of the day-long election in the Philippines.
