Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Transparency, easy access and information examination are keys to a successful absentee voting system, the top Philippine diplomat in Taiwan said Wednesday as his office was gearing up for his country's presidential election in May.
Absentee voting for overseas Filipinos will begin April 10 and close May 10, the day when the Southeastern Asian country elects its president, vice president, 12 senators, congressmen, governors, mayors and councilmen, said Antonio Basilio, Managing Director and Resident Representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO).
The Philippines' practice of the system, which was enacted in 2004, could serve as an example for Taiwan's government, which has been assessing the feasibility of an absentee voting system that President Ma Ying-jeou considers a necessity in a democratic country and a must to protect the constitutional and human rights of Taiwan's electorate.
An estimated 600,000 registered voters or more -- including 15,000 in Taiwan -- among 3 million overseas Filipino workers around the world are expected to cast their votes under the absentee voting system, which includes both physical and postal voting, he said.
Implementation of the absentee voting is sometimes difficult because voting has to take place in embassies or consulates, he said, noting that voters also have to travel and can probably only vote on their days off.
"The expected turnout in Taiwan will be a little more than 50 percent, while the global turnout is expected to be around 50 percent-60 percent, " said Basilio.
Postal absentee voting was adopted in Taiwan for the 2004 Philippine presidential election but had disappointing results, he went on.
Basilio explained that a lot of oversea workers were caught between elections due to contracts, so that some registered voters never received their mailed ballots due to an address change, while those who registered in the Philippines before going abroad did not know their future addresses.
Transparency and easy access for people wishing to cast their votes are vital for a successful absentee voting system, the representative said, adding that using technology to improve information examination is equally important.
Fraud never occurs in the Philippines' voting system because the government is able to achieve this transparency and access and government officials are able to maintain neutrality throughout the whole process, according to Basilio.
The implementation of computerized vote-counting for the first time is also expected to improve the speed and accuracy of vote-counting, although it will not be done in Taiwan this year, he went on.
According to Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior (MOI) , there are several options for absentee voting, such as postal voting, proxy voting, voting in advance and transfer voting.
Interior Minister Jiang Yi-hua said that after discussions with the Central Election Commission, the ministry has tentatively decided to first introduce transfer voting, which will allow eligible voters to vote in the constituencies where they work instead of the constituencies where their legal residences are registered. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J