MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections said it will push for “zero failure” in the May 2025 national, local and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said Comelec will do its best to prevent failure of elections in the midterm polls next year.
“We will do all we can so there will be no failure of elections in any part of the country – just like what happened in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections last year,” Garcia said at a recent briefing.
He added that the poll body would coordinate with the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and election volunteers so no failure of elections will occur.
“That means people were able to vote, the candidates were elected and the Comelec was able to proclaim candidates properly,” the poll chief said.
However, the Comelec welcomes the possibility of some quarters filing protests before the commission, according to Garcia.
“We cannot prevent that. That’s OK, it is part of the process but there shouldn’t be failure to elect,” he said.
The official said that according to the Supreme Court, failure of elections is the failure to elect.
“It means if you have 100 voters and 10 were able to vote, and there was no force, violence, threat, intimidation, terrorism, then there is no failure of elections. But if only 10 out of the 100 voters were able to vote and that is because they were terrorized or there was violence, then that is failure of elections,” explained Garcia.
Latest data from the Comelec showed there are 68,618,667 registered voters nationwide who may participate in the May 2025 polls. Meanwhile, the BARMM expects 2,352,858 registered voters to vote in its parliamentary elections.