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Registered Filipino voters in the UAE can start enrolling by March 10 to cast their ballots online for the upcoming Philippine midterm elections. The Philippine Consulate-General in Dubai on Wednesday shared the guidelines for the online voting system that will be used for the first time this year.
Filipino expats will elect 12 senators and a party-list representative, but they have to pre-enrol on the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) voting portal between March 10 and May 12 to become eligible for the new online voting. In case of any issues, however, voting can still be cast physically at the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate-General in Dubai, where a voting kiosk will be set for select individuals.
In the video released by Comelec, the election body said voting can be done on mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop with built-in camera or can be plugged with a camera and capable of connecting to the internet running on any web browser.
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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. The full list can be found on Comelec website.
The Comelec underscored to participate in the internet voting, registered Filipino overseas voters must:
The registration is open from March 10 (Monday) until May 12 (Monday) - prior to the closing of polls in the Philippines at 7pm, which is 3pm (UAE time).
Link for the enrolment will be posted on the official websites and social media pages of Comelec and Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.
To familiarise with the actual voting process, Comelec said there will be online test voting from March 10 (Monday) to April 12 (Saturday). Test voting will be active only during the pre-enrolment and before the actual voting period.
The election day in the Philippines is May 12, 2025, but for overseas Filipinos, absentee voting will run for 30 days from April 13 (Sunday) at 8am (UAE time) until May 12 (Monday) 3pm UAE time or 7pm Philippine time.
During the actual online voting, the login voting portal will be sent to the overseas voter’s registered email address or mobile number. To avoid confusion, the test voting site will no longer be available when the actual voting starts on April 13.
According to Comelec, only the following overseas voters can vote online using the voting kiosks at the foreign missions: senior citizens, pregnant, those who are illiterate, and persons with disability (PWD).
Earlier, Filipino community leaders told Khaleej Times they are optimistic more Filipinos in the UAE will cast their votes in the Philippine midterm elections in May with the introduction of online voting. They also called on the Philippine government to ensure the security of the polls.
The UAE is consistently among the top five countries and territories with the highest turnout of Filipino voters in every election. During the presidential elections back in May 2022, Dubai saw a total of 60,393 Filipino expats who cast their votes – it was the highest number of overseas voters among Philippine foreign service posts all over the world since overseas voting began in 2004.
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