Over 95% of local election returns now at Comelec servers
Voters casting their ballots in Nagpayong Elementary School, Barangay Pinagbuhatan, 2nd District, Pasig City during the May 12, 2025 National and Local Elections. This machine had to be opened several times by the EB chair as it rejected some forms or took a long time to read. The school topped the Comelec list of Voting Centers nationwide with the highest number of registered voters having a total number of 47,249. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — Over 95 percent of election returns (ERs) from polls held within the country have been sent to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) servers, latest updates on the poll body’s website showed.
Data from Comelec’s website as of 1:15 a.m. of Tuesday showed 95.52 percent of the local ERs—or 89,210 of the 93,387 ERs—have been received. Meanwhile, 194 of the 242 ERs from overseas voting or 80.16 percent have been sent to Comelec.
This means that for the local voting, only 4,177 ERs have not been sent, and for the overseas voting, there are 48 ERs remaining.
Regarding certificates of canvass (COCs), or final vote tallies from Comelec, 27.08 percent or 445 of 1,643 certificates for city and municipal races have been received. For the provincial and district COCs, only one has been sent, with 83 others still awaiting transmittal.
For the overseas COCs, 38 of 64 certificates have been sent already, for a transmittal rate of 59.37 percent.
Comelec is also posting results on its website, but Chairperson George Garcia in a press briefing on Monday night clarified that they will not post a scoreboard showing who is leading the different election races.
According to Garcia, media and poll watchdogs like the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) can show who is leading in the senatorial elections because they are authorized to post partial and unofficial results, while Comelec’s official tally would have to be released by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
Garcia also clarified that the delays experienced by transparency servers were not shared by Comelec.
Earlier, transparency servers failed to show partial and unofficial results even after 8:00 p.m.—or one hour after most polling precincts closed—due a technical problem.
This development prompted concerns as to whether there would be a repeat of the 2019 midterm elections—where a glitch saw zero transmittals for at least seven hours.
READ: Comelec blames ‘bottleneck’ for 7-hour server delay
However, partial and unofficial results started to come in before 8:30 p.m.
As of 1:08 a.m. of Tuesday, the Comelec transparency server showed that incumbent Senator Christoper “Bong” Go still leads the race with over 26.5 million votes, followed by former Senator Bam Aquino with 20.5 million votes, and Senator Ronald dela Rosa at 20.3 million votes.
READ: Go, Aquino, Dela Rosa top Senate race in partial, unofficial results
After the partial top three, the following candidates round out the Magic 12:
- ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo – 16.8 million
- former Senator Kiko Pangilinan – 14.9 million
- Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta – 14.9 million
- former Senator Ping Lacson – 14.7 million
- former Senate President Tito Sotto – 14.5 million
- Senator Pia Cayetano – 14.2 million
- Deputy Speaker Camille Villar – 13.3 million
- Senator Lito Lapid – 13.1 million
- Senator Imee Marcos – 13.0 million
/cb
