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Friday, June 13, 2025

Comelec touts fastest count despite bugs

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared the midterm polls’ vote counting process a “remarkable success” for being the fastest in Philippine electoral history, even while the official election watchdog hailed the voting public for showing up in huge numbers.

In a press briefing yesterday, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said voters can expect the polls’ results just three to four days after the voting period concluded.

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“This significant advancement underscores the improvements made in the efficiency of the electoral process, promising a more streamlined and effective experience for voters,” he noted.

The Comelec chief said that in the 2025 elections, there were no incidents of ballot snatching or kidnapping, saying “this is largely due to the fact that every vote cast into the automated counting machines (ACMs) is counted instantly.”

“Therefore, even if an individual attempted to take out the ballots that had already been inserted into the ACMs, those votes would have already been recorded and accounted for in the election results,” he added.

Garcia said the ACMs used in this year’s midterm elections performed effectively overall, despite some instances where they encountered technical glitches at various polling locations, resulting in extended wait times for voters.

He emphasized that the performance of the ACMs this year surpassed that of previous elections, highlighting that nearly 2,000 vote-counting machines were replaced during the 2022 national elections, whereas this year, only 311 machines were replaced due to minor technical problems.

Meanwhile, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) attributed the elections’ success to the high voter turnout.

Some 68 million Filipinos were eligible to vote in the 2025 midterm elections, according to the Comelec.

Voter turnout in midterm elections typically ranges from 63 to 65 percent, the poll body’s data showed.

However, PPCRV spokesperson Ana De Villa-Singson said her group estimates Monday’s voter turnout at 80.27 percent.

This was close to the 83 percent voter turnout in the 2022 presidential elections, the highest in the country’s history of automated elections.

“I think the gap [relative to presidential elections] is small, less than 2 percent and I think that’s very remarkable because this is a midterm election. Usually, the gap between a presidential and midterm election is wider, but people seem excited about this particular election even if it’s midterm,” she explained in a mixture of English and Filipino.

Singson also pointed out the higher participation of Mindanao voters.

“From dusk till dawn, the lines at polling centers remained long, which is not the usual voting habit of Filipino voters. Because usually, the peak is like middle to late afternoon,” she added.

Still, not everyone was happy with the way the elections were conducted, as observers from the European Union (EU) continued to bemoan being kept out of the actual polling precincts.

In a statement, the EU Election Observation Missions (EU EOMs) said, “Following COMELEC’s recent letters and instructions, the EU EOM found that it was no longer granted the necessary guarantees for adequate access to polling precincts, which is an essential element of the EU’s observation methodology.”

“As a result, the EU EOM could not ensure meaningful observation of the voting phase in polling precincts. Consequently, the Mission did not deploy the whole team of observers as originally planned. However, all EU observers were deployed to the counting process after the closing of the polls,” it added.

The EU EOM pointed out that it had earlier signed an agreement with Philippine authorities granting its personnel freedom of access, at any time, to all polling precincts and the canvassing centers.

Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Comelec: 2025 midterm polls fastest in history.”

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