Comelec in full speed for 2025 polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Sunday that they are in 'full speed' of preparation to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted timeline for the 2025 national and local elections.

"Our preparation is really full speed because [the] timeline that we have must be followed because if not, our automated elections of 2025 will really be [interrupted]," Comelec Chairman Atty. George Garcia said in a radio interview, further noting that five months after the midterm polls in May next year, the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections will be conducted.

Garcia, moreover, said that currently, automated counting machines are being manufactured by the South Korean firm Miru Systems Company and have already started two weeks ago.

"We hope that this coming August they will be able to deliver more or less the initial 20,000 units," Garcia said.

"And before the end of December, the total of 110,000 machines that we will use will be delivered. That's just rent; we'll use it for the next election," he added.

Comelec and Miru Systems forged in March this year a P17.99-billion contract for the lease of an automated election system for the 2025 polls, which includes 110,000 automated counting machines, ballot boxes, laptops, and other peripherals.