Comelec: No 'dagdag-bawas' during Halalan2025

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured the public that there was no "dagdag-bawas" — or the practice of vote-padding and shaving to manipulate election outcomes — on the results for the 2025 senatorial race.

Comelec Spokesperson Rex Laudiangco explained that there were delays and confusion on the total number of data of the election returns being transmitted by automated counting machines (ACMs) from clustered precincts to their respective transparency servers.

"There were duplications in the election returns (ER) data that were made public and caused confusion and speculation on social media," Laudiangco said in a statement sent to the media.

However, he debunked cases of dagdag-bawas on the results of the senatorial race that were released from the Comelec data server.

"The adjustment of data released by the media and accredited citizens' arms on their respective public websites may have been the result of a misunderstanding on the proper processing of files they receive," Laudiangco explained.

He added that the data of the ERs being received by the servers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), media, and dominant and minority parties need to undergo processing so they could be translated from machine-readable to human-readable data.

"The receipt of transmitted ERs from the automated counting machines (ACMs) to the transparency servers is not simultaneous and depends on the speed of the process flow carried out by the Electoral Boards from the closing of polls, printing of ERs, to transmission," he continued.

"So, apart from the delays experienced by accredited citizens' arms, media and dominant and minority parties on their servers, the ERs received are also being accumulated and need to be processed first," he added.

At this point, Laudiangco said, they finish processing first the data that came first before starting to process the following data, which causes a slight delay in the results.

The Comelec official explained that the alleged inflated votes of some candidates were caused by duplication in the ERs' data received by the media and accredited citizens' arms servers.

"This happens because whenever ACMs send ERs, all previously transmitted ERs are still included in the newly received ERs on the server," he added, noting that this is not an indication of "dagdag-bawas."

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia earlier explained that transparency servers for this midterm election receive encrypted machine-readable transmitted election returns in real-time.

However, Garcia explained that only the Comelec Central Server is capable of automatically translating it to human-readable data, and the only one connected to the Comelec Election Results website.

Laudiangco and Garcia made the clarification after the election results for the senatorial race went viral because of an alleged "discrepancy" and "decline" of about five million votes received by a senatorial candidate.