Groups raise issues on Comelec’s conduct of #Halalan2025; poll watchdogs react
Nani Ramos
May 22, 2025
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The Commission on Elections begins its random manual audit (RMA) of ballots in the 2025 national and local elections at the Citadines by the Bay on May 14, 2025. Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Groups on Wednesday raised issues regarding how the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) conducted the midterm elections, saying some of these needed clarity.
Among the issues raised by the Church Leaders Council for Natural Transformation and Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan (ANIM) include the millions of “overvotes” that may have disenfranchised voters, as well as the version of the automated counting machine’s (ACM) software.
In his presentation, ANIM co-convenor Alex Lacson said there were 17.03 million overvotes in this year’s midterm elections, higher compared to the overvotes in the past elections.
Lacson also said there was a 2-hour delay in the transmission of votes and the media transparency servers only had results past 8 p.m.
“We will be merely asking questions. We will avoid making any conclusions,” said Lacson at the beginning of his presentation.
“What if the election results data supplied by the Comelec to PPCRV, Namfrel, media, are already manipulated, altered?” he said of the transmission, referring to the allegations that the election returns went past data center 3 instead of being directly sent to the poll watchdogs and media servers.
But in an interview with the media, Ana Singson, PPCRV spokesperson, urged the groups and the public to allow the process of checks and balances to happen.
Singson noted that their parallel count with the election returns and the random manual audit led by the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Comelec are underway.
“Yung aming unofficial parallel count, mayroon kaming election return. Yun ang physical receipt ng bawat polling precinct… Kung mapalitan man during transmission, makikita namin kasi may paper trail, so ngayon umabot na kami ng 40,000 out of the over 90,000 na ERs ang dumating na,” said Singson.
Asked on what she thought about the forum, Singson said it was good that people are passionate and engaged with the elections.
“Let us always temper passion with reason, like what I said, there are always explanations if we actively seek for them. Look for the primary source data, don’t look for the secondary source data,” she said.
During the forum, Singson also explained the overvotes, which in this year was defined as “the number of votes which were cast aside” or uncounted votes.
“Ilan ang hindi binilang? Hindi 13, ang hindi binilang ay 12 kasi 12 lang ang maximum na votes na pwede (sa senator). Ginamit din yun sa 2010 and 2013 noong Smart-Dominion PCOS, ngayon ang Miru, yun din ang definition nila,” she said.
“If you divide that by 12, the maximum number that can be cast aside by any voter is 12 kasi 12 ang maximum number of votes para sa senator. If you divide 17.4 million by 12, that would give you 1.4 million,” she said.
Singson said the percentage of overvote this year was at 2.45 percent, if the public would follow her explanation, lower compared to 2019 when the overvote was at 2.55 percent.
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Lawyer Ona Caritos of the Legal Network For Truthful Elections (LENTE), for her part, said the overvotes could have been a result of several factors.
“So far ang nakikita namin is a combination of a few factors: manipis na balota, mababang threshold at low quality markers. Pag nag-combine yang tatlong yan, nagkaroon tayo ng mga smudges,” Caritos told the media.
“Unfortunately because of the lower threshold, kahit kaunting smudge lang, it counted as a vote,” she said.
Caritos recommended that the Comelec hold longer mock elections, instead of the regular two hours.
“Kailangan ang thresh hold taasan kasi nakita natin ngayon lalong-lalo na sa ginagawang random manual audit, kaunting dot is counted as a vote. That will result to overvote lalong-lalo na for senatorial position,” she said.
Caritos said she welcomed the forum held by the groups, as this means they care about the elections.
She lamented, however, that some allegations presented by the groups have already been explained.
“Yung mga allegations were already explained. Pero siguro kailangan i-explain nang mas matagal na dialogue sa grupo nila kasama ang iba’t iba pang stakeholders para mas maliwanagan sila,” she said.
The LENTE official said the real problem was not about the machine, but rather the abuse of state resources and vote buying.
