May 6, 2025

A week before the 2025 midterm elections, Comelec announced that they have secured the TEC and ICE certification for the automated election system. But this is way past the supposed deadline.

“Section 11 of Republic Act No. 9369 requires that the certification should be issued not later than three months before election day. This means that the deadline should have been February 12. Why is it that COMELEC is only ‘flexible’ with the implementation of the law when it benefits them?” said Prof. Danilo Arao, convenor of Kontra Daya.

The election watchdog group has been calling on the implementation of a hybrid election system (manual vote counting at the precinct level combined with electronic transmission) to prevent possible electronic manipulation of results.

Back in January, Comelec chair George Garcia said that “there needs to be a law to have a hybrid system of elections.”

Kontra Daya added that with the many problems encountered in the OFW online voting system and now the delayed securing of the certification, it seems like the Comelec is ill-prepared for the midterm elections. #