Senatorial, party-list winners to be known 2 days after 2025 polls, assures Comelec

National

SENATORIAL candidates and party-lists will not have to wait long to know the final result of votes of next year's election.

Commission on Election (Comelec) chief George Garcia said the final tally of the results of senatorial and party-list races will be known two to three days after the election.

As to the local positions from mayor down to the councilors, the result could be expected on the same day, or around 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., depending on how fast the transmission of votes and signal strengths from the precincts.

“If all precincts in a particular city or municipality will be able to end voting almost at the same time, then they will already know who won as mayor of their town because the election return will have already been printed,” Garcia said per a Philippine Star report.

Candidates will know if they won or lost once the result at the respective precinct is posted outside, even if there’s no transmission of the results yet.

However, the result will still be unofficial since the official results will come from the hierarchy of canvassing, Garcia said during the Automated Counting Machine (ACM) Field Testing at the Taguig Convention Center.

The Comelec conducted field testing in some precincts across the country. The tests were done in six provinces, 15 cities or municipalities. There were also five in other countries.

During the field testing in several areas like Quezon and Roxas in Palawan, San Jose in Antique, Basco and Ivana in Batanes, Davao City and Malalag in Davao del Sur and Languyan in Tawi-Tawi and Kapalawan and Ligawasan in the Special Geographic Area, there were no major problems encountered and the tests were smooth from voting to counting up to the transmission of the results.

There were also tests run abroad like Abu Dhabi, United Aram Emirates, Tokyo Japan, New York Washington DC, and Athens Greece.

The field testing was done to ensure that the machines to be used in next year’s poll are functioning.

“Ang gusto natin ipakita rito yung makina, yung mismong paghuhulog ng balota pa lang, pagbilang niya, pagsusumatotal, pagprint ng election returns, at pagtatransmit at kung effective ba yung transmission gamit ang smart card, gamit ang starlink, gamit ang DITO card,” Garcia said.(LAO)