Comelec: No major delay in access to Eleksyon 2025 results

Commission on Elections (Chairman) George Garcia said Monday that there is no major delay in terms of the watchdogs’ access to the election results, saying that all election returns sent to poll watchdogs and media organizations are no different from those received by the Comelec. 

The watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) around 8 p.m. on Monday said that while its servers received approximately 34% of the election returns, it was unable to download the data for processing, calling it “a serious concern.” It later said that it was now able to access the transmission.

“Kanina po kausap ko sila, pumapasok po sa primary server niyo po eh. At the same time, doon po sa monitoring namin, mas advanced pa po sila sa amin. Iyong isa ko pong nakita, naka 42 [election returns] na sila, kami 39 [pa lang]. Talagang meron pong ganun minsan, like in texting, in a matter of seconds, pag pinagsama-sama lahat, may nauuna at nahuhuli iyong iba. Pero minutes lang po, hindi po major,” Garcia told reporters.

(I talked to them, and the election returns were received by their primary server. And based on our monitoring, they even received 42 election returns at one point when we only received 39 so far. So that really happens, like if you are texting a lot of people at the same time, the time when they are able to receive the text varies. Others might receive it earlier but just by a few minutes, nothing like a major delay.)

“’Yung po sigurong kanilang server, baka po nagkaroon ng delay. Pero ‘yung server ng Comelec, kanina pa pong alas siyete tayo nakakatanggap ng [election returns reflecting the] results,” he said.

(Maybe the delay was due to their server. But as far as the Comelec server is concerned, we have been receiving results since 7 p.m. [when the voting hours closed].) 

Garcia added that while the Comelec and the election watchdogs do not use the same transparency servers, solid safeguards are in place to ensure that the election returns sent to all transparency servers of the watchdogs are the same election returns received by the Comelec. 

“Ang pinaka-importante pa rin po ganito, parehas po ba ‘yung napapadala sa kanila at napapadala sa amin? May paraan ba to counter check kung parehas? Pwede po. Bakit? Si Namfrel mismo ay pinayagan ng Comelec in 60 areas, 60 sa buong Pilipinas, na i-capture ang QR code hindi ng ER kundi resibo [ng balota na ipinasok sa counting machines],” he said.

(What is important is there is a way to easily verify if we are receiving the same results. Why? Because the Comelec allowed Namfrel in 60 areas to capture the QR code not of the election returns but of the receipt [of the votes counted in the machine.])

“Puwede nilang makita kung tumutugma ba yung bilang ng resibo sa bawat posisyon as against sa election returns,” Garcia added.

(They can easily see if our data sets match in every position as against election returns.)

Also late Monday, Garcia said that it is unlikely that all precincts will be able to finish transiting election returns tonight, May 12, given that voting is yet to be finished in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“Mukha po na hindi kami makakareach ng 100% sapagkat meron po kaming Datu Odin Sinsuat [in Maguindanao del Norte] na binigyan namin ang continuation ng kanilang eleksyon at ‘yung 11,000 na hindi pa nakaboto, kahit na ang botong involved ay maaaring hindi [na] maka-apekto sa results ng national [elections]. Kahit nga siguro sa local,” he said.

(We are unlikely to hit 100% tonight because we still have Datu Odin Sinsuat [in Maguindanao del Norte] where 11,000 voters will still have to vote, even though the election results in this area won't change the results of the national polls or even local elections.)

“Wala po tayong iiwan na mga kababayan natin. Dapat po makakaboto [muna] sila,” Garcia added.

(We won't leave anybody behind. We need to wait for all of our fellow Filipinos to be able vote.) — BM, GMA Integrated News 

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