The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has confirmed that the 2025 Philippine elections proceeded without any declaration of failure, despite technical issues affecting several polling stations across the country.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia emphasized that while 311 automated counting machines (ACMs) experienced technical problems, these incidents did not warrant a declaration of election failure. Instead, the poll body has extended voting hours in at least 15 precincts until Tuesday to ensure that all eligible voters are given the opportunity to cast their ballots.
“Ngayon po merong ilang presinto sa buong Pilipinas na mukhang kakailanganin nating i-extend yung kanilang botohan… walang declaration ng failure of election pero kinakailangan iextend yung kanilang pagboto,” Garcia explained.
He further revealed that the issue in these affected precincts was due to poor-quality timing marks on some ballots, which the machines failed to read. As a result, the Comelec ordered the immediate reprinting of the affected ballots.
“These precincts may not affect anymore the results of this election… but we still need to proceed with the election so as not to disenfranchise the voters,” Garcia stressed.
The Comelec recorded 69,673,655 registered voters for the 2025 elections, with 68,431,965 located in the Philippines and 1,241,690 overseas.
