The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is hoping to complete the canvassing of votes for the 2025 midterm elections on Thursday, just three days after Filipinos cast their votes.

If they pull it off, it would be the fastest national canvassing in Philippine election history, Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia told reporters in a press briefing on Wednesday at the Manila Hotel’s Tent City, where the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC) is holding sessions.

“Looks like it,” Garcia said when asked if this would mark a historic first for the poll body.

Traditionally, canvassing the certificates of canvass (CoCs) could take up to two weeks in the automated election era. And back in the days of manual counting, it often dragged on for over a month.

But things are moving quickly this year.

On the first day alone, the NBoC tallied 58 out of 175 CoCs — a record for an opening day, according to Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco.

“This is the highest number of CoCs ever canvassed on the first day of national canvassing,” he said.

Garcia, who spent years as an election lawyer, recalled that there were times in the past when the board didn’t even receive a single CoC on the first day.

“There were days when nothing moved because no CoCs had arrived yet,” he said.

This year, though, momentum is on their side.

Garcia said the goal for Wednesday was to canvass another 100 CoCs, bringing the running total to 158. “If we hit that number today, it would really be historic,” he said.

Every CoC tallied becomes part of the partial and official count, which ultimately determines the winners of the senatorial and party-list races.

Of the 175 total CoCs, 82 are from provinces, 64 from overseas voting posts, 26 from highly urbanized cities, two from district boards of canvassers, and one from the local absentee voting.

Proclamation set this weekend

The Comelec announced that it aims to proclaim all winning senators and party-list groups by the weekend. Garcia said the full proclamation could happen as early as Saturday.

Garcia explained that the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) will proceed with the proclamation once all 175 certificates of canvass (COCs) are tallied, and the remaining uncanvassed COCs will not affect the results.

As of now, Senator Bong Go leads the senatorial race, with former senators Bam Aquino, Francis Pangilinan, and others included in the “Magic 12.” Akbayan party-list is also poised to secure up to three seats.

Random manual audit underway

The Comelec began its random manual audit (RMA) for the national and local elections on Wednesday. The audit will cover ballots from 726 randomly selected clustered precincts and one voting post, with 27 ballot boxes audited on the first day.

Around 60 teams from the Department of Education, made up of teachers who didn’t serve as electoral board members, will assess the performance of automated counting machines (ACMs) and validate the ballots. Observers from PPCRV and Namfrel are also involved.

The RMA, held at Citadines Bay City Hotel in Pasay, is a mandated measure to ensure election integrity and transparency. It will run for up to 45 days and aims to maintain the 99.9 percent accuracy rate since the 2010 automated elections.