MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has advised Filipino absentee voters to send their queries or concerns in relation to the start of the balloting on April 9 directly to the poll body as the online portal aimed at guiding them has remained inaccessible.
A check on the Comelec’s official website www.comelec.gov.ph showed that its “Post Finder” feature was still “under maintenance,” as of Sunday.
The feature, which aims to help overseas absentee voters find the place or Philippine post where they should cast their votes, was among the web applications affected when hackers broke into and defaced the Comelec’s website last week.
Among features that have been disabled were the website’s search function, precinct finder and video demonstrations.
The Comelec’s information technology department has been working to restore all the functions of the website since the hacking late night of March 27.
In the meantime, it advised overseas voters to send their queries or concerns to info@comelec.gov.ph so that the poll body could address them promptly.
Comelec data show that 1.37 million registered Filipino absentee voters are set to cast their ballots in 26 Philippine posts worldwide. Of this number, 1.3 million are land-based while more than 49,000 are seafarers.
Of the 85 Philippine posts, 30 are adopting the automated election system while 26 will use personal manual voting system.
Another 26 Philippine posts will use the postal manual voting system, in which the ballots are mailed to the registered voter, who will in turn mail it back to the polling center after filling it out. Voting for Filipinos abroad will run from April 9 to May 9. SFM