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Philippine elections: Online voting system to go live April 13; Dubai mission conducts final checks
This will be the first time that internet voting will be conducted — which means no more queues at the Philippine missions to cast ballots
- PUBLISHED: Fri 11 Apr 2025, 2:03 PM
It’s all systems go for the upcoming Philippine midterm elections. The Philippine Consulate-General in Dubai conducted on Friday the Final Lockdown and Sealing (FLS) of the Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) equipment that will be used for the Philippine overseas voting that will start on April 13.
The FLS is intended to present the system and ensure that the OVCS is ready for the actual operation for the duration of the 2025 Philippine midterm elections.
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This will be the first time that internet voting will be conducted — which means no more queues at the Philippine missions to cast ballots.
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Registered Filipino voters in the UAE are required to pre-enroll on the Philippine Commission on Elections' (Comelec) voting portal until May 7, before they can participate to elect 12 senators and a party-list representative.
Watch a video of the final checks, here:
The official election day is May 12, 2025, but for overseas Filipino expats — including those in the UAE — online voting will run for 30 days from April 13 to May 12.
Voting can be done on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers with built-in cameras, or ones that can be plugged with a camera and are capable of connecting to the internet running on any web browser.
In case of any issues, however, voters can still be assisted at the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate-General in Dubai.
To participate in Internet voting, eligible citizens must be registered as overseas voters and enlisted under the 77 Philippine posts (embassies and consulates) that will facilitate Internet voting.
The Philippine missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are among the foreign posts in the Middle East that will facilitate online voting.
Philippine consul-general Marford Angeles told Khaleej Times: “The Philippine government has made voting easier and more accessible to a lot of overseas Filipinos through online voting. We encourage all registered Filipino overseas voters in the UAE to pre-enroll and cast their votes online to be part of this historic event in Philippine voting.”
