Internet voting to proceed in Thailand — Comelec

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Wednesday that internet voting for overseas Filipino voters in Thailand will proceed despite the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck the country last week.

"Sa Thailand, wala naman din tayong problema. Mahigit 8,000 ang atin pong mga botanteng kababayan doon, and therefore, tayo po ay mag-i-internet voting pa rin sa kanila (In Thailand, we have no problem. We have over 8,000 registered voters there, and therefore, internet voting will proceed)," Comelec Chairperson George Garcia told reporters.

"May nararamdaman na aftershocks but at the same time, stick pa rin sa kung ano talaga ang dapat na paraan ng pagboto (There are still aftershocks there, but at the same time, we will still stick with the proper voting process)," Garcia added.

Meanwhile, postal voting will proceed for the 320 overseas Filipino voters in Myanmar.

"Sa Myanmar po maliwanag na po doon, postal voting tayo. Ipapadala pa rin natin ang mga balota sa ating mga kababayan (In Myanmar, it is clear that we will be doing postal voting. We will still send the ballots to our countrymen)," Garcia said.

"Hindi na po internet voting ang ipapatupad natin doon kundi postal voting (We will no longer implement internet voting there, we will go with postal voting)," he added.

Garcia said the Comelec already spoke to the Philippine Embassy in Myanmar and assured there was no issue with the infrastructure and that Filipinos there "are properly accounted for."

The overseas voting period will run from 13 April to 12 May.

The massive earthquake that hit Myanmar on 28 March left at least 2,719 people dead.