Bicam body resolves kinks in absentee voting measure

A House-Senate conference committee has resolved all but two issues on the absentee voting bill and a final draft law could be hammered out today, Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

Angara, chairman of the Senate panel, said that the only unresolved issues are the right of immigrants to vote, and voting by mail.

"But even on these two issues, a compromise is about to be reached," added Angara, also chairman of the Senate committee on suffrage and electoral reforms.

The Senate version wants to grant the right to vote to all overseas Filipinos who have not given up their citizenship, while the House version excludes immigrants and green card holders.

"There is an emerging consensus that immigrants who have given up on the country shall not be allowed to vote, but those who want to return to the country shall be covered by the proposed law," Angara said.

On the manner of voting, the Senate bill allows voting by mail, while the House bill calls for the personal casting of votes in the precincts.

"The panel may opt for a proposal to allow voting by mail in selected countries," Angara said.

Two countries where voting by mail might be allowed are Canada and the United States, which have stringent laws against mail fraud, and have highly efficient postal service.

Earlier, the bicameral panel reached a compromise on the controversial "sunset" provision of the House version that would make the law applicable only to the 2004 elections. The bicameral committee scraped this provision but provided for a review within two years after May 2004.

Absentee voters could vote for president, vice president, senators and party-list representatives but not for local officials, and in referenda and plebiscites.

"We walked the extra mile to finish the working draft. We are going page by page but we will try to finish it today," said Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda.

The optimism of Legarda and Angara was not shared by Sen. John Osmeña, however, who said he left the meeting because both sides did not appear to be listening to the other.