Comelec finishes vote tally in three days, observes historic 81.65% voter turnout for 2025 midterm polls
The Commission on Elections announced that it has finished tallying votes for the 2025 midterm polls in three days.
In a Facebook post, Comelec said the National Board of Canvasses concluded its canvassing, from May 13 to 15, of all the certificates of canvass.
A total of 58 COCs were canvassed on May 13, 101 COCs on May 14, and 16 COCs on May 15.
The COCs came from 64 Philippine posts abroad for overseas voting, 110 provinces/cities/municipalities/districts, and the local absentee voting, which covered the Armed Forces, the Philippine National Police, and media practitioners.
Comelec Commissioner George Garcia previously said the final data from the NBOC will be used to determine the 12 winning senators and 63 party-list groups.
The 12 winning senators are set to be proclaimed on Saturday, May 17.
Based on the partial and unofficial count from 99.12% of election returns as of May 15 at 2:41 p.m., the presumptive winners include:
- Bong Go (26.9 million votes)
- Bam Aquino (20.8 million votes)
- Bato Dela Rosa (20.5 million votes)
- Erwin Tulfo (17 million votes)
- Kiko Pangilinan (15.2 million votes)
- Rodante Marcoleta (15.1 million votes)
- Ping Lacson (15 million votes)
- Tito Sotto (14.7 million votes)
- Pia Cayetano (14.5 million votes)
- Camille Villar (13.5 million votes)
- Lito Lapid (13.3 million votes)
- Imee Marcos (13.2 million votes)
As for the party-list groups, Comelec has yet to determine the seat allocation.
Those who got at least 2% of the votes are guaranteed one seat from the 63 available seats, with additional seats depending on more votes. Groups can only have a maximum of three seats each. If there are still available seats from the 63 slots, they will be distributed to the remaining top groups.
The groups that got at least 2% votes include:
- Akbayan (6.66%)
- Duterte Youth (5.59%)
- Tingog (4.36%)
- 4PS (3.51%)
- ACT-CIS (2.97%)
- Ako Bicol (2.57%)
Comelec said this year's elections also saw an 81.65% voter turnout in the early count, the highest in the history of the country's midterm polls. That meant a total of 55,874,700 out of 68,431,965 registered voters cast their ballots.
The poll agency has also started doing its random manual audit of ballots since May 14. It said the audit will be held Monday to Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the RMA Center in Pasay.
It said representatives of registered political parties, citizens’ arm groups, members of the media, and the public are allowed to observe the conduct of the audit, subject to space considerations.
Watchers, lawyers, representatives of candidates, party-list and/or political parties, meanwhile, may personally observe the conduct of the audit, by submitting a letter of intent not later than three days before their intended date of observation.
As of May 15, 8 p.m., Comelec said it has audited three ballot boxes, with 59 currently on audit. About 231 boxes will be delivered to the RMA Center for auditing.
The midterm elections were held on May 12. This year's 68.4 million registered voters surpassed the 65.7 million count in 2022.
A total of 18,320 national and local positions were up for grabs.
