Independent election observers on Tuesday declared that the 2025 Philippine midterm polls “failed to meet international standards for free and fair elections.”

In a damning report, the International Observer Mission (IOM) cited “grave and widespread violations” of human rights, pointing to systemic issues such as voter disenfranchisement, rampant vote buying, red-tagging, political dynasties and foreign military interference.

“The rights of Filipinos to vote freely and without coercion were compromised,” said IOM Commissioner Lee Rhiannon. “The climate of fear, normalized vote buying and militarization surrounding the elections reflect a failure to uphold international democratic standards.”

The report is based on weeks of field documentation by over 50 international human rights observers deployed across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, as well as remote monitoring teams tracking disinformation, overseas absentee voting and media coverage.

The IOM is part of an initiative led by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).

According to the report, the IOM documented 545 election violations, including killings, harassment, disappearances and other abuses. At least 111 vote buying incidents were confirmed, with some parties reportedly offering up to P16,000 per vote.

Observers also flagged mass voter disenfranchisement.

Many reported malfunctioning vote-counting machines, misread or misprinted ballots, and non-certified software running the machines — issues that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) failed to adequately explain.

The disenfranchisement extended to overseas voters, where glitches in online registration and delayed pre-enrolment led to a historically low voter turnout of just 18.12 percent among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Meanwhile, many domestic voters, particularly from the working class, were unable to vote because 12 May was not declared a paid holiday, forcing them to choose between casting their ballots and earning their daily wage.

ICHRP Global Council chair Peter Murphy said the midterm elections violated key provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Philippines is a state party. He warned that these abuses fundamentally undermined the right of Filipinos to participate in free and fair elections. Murphy also called the scale of vote buying “scandalous interference with the election,” and noted that despite receiving 158 formal complaints, Comelec issued only minimal sanctions.

Observers stressed that poverty and entrenched inequality allowed political dynasties and business-backed candidates to distort electoral outcomes. The IOM has recommended sweeping reforms, including a hybrid manual-automated voting system, reforms to the OFW registration process, and the declaration of election day as a paid public holiday.

Red-tagging emerged as the most commonly reported violation in the IOM report. Local watchdog Vote Report PH documented 1,445 cases, while the Mission independently verified 112. Rhiannon said red-tagging was used to smear reputations, deter campaigning and discourage voting.

She cited disturbing cases: tarpaulins labeling progressive candidates as “NPA” and “terrorist,” fake coffins with blood and the names of activist groups, soldiers interrogating children as young as five in Western Visayas, and military personnel in Abra handing out “surrender papers” in exchange for financial aid or the chance to “clear” one’s name.

Rhiannon emphasized that these were not isolated incidents but part of a coordinated, well-funded campaign involving the police, military and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). She said the unchecked labeling of progressive groups as insurgents has created a climate of fear, suppressed political participation, and severely undermined democratic space.

“The 2025 elections failed to uphold the most basic democratic principle: the people’s uncoerced right to choose their leaders,” Rhiannon said. “These abuses not only constitute electoral violations, they are also violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

“What we witnessed in the 2025 elections,” added Commissioner Andrea Mann, “was not democracy. It was a system marred by coercion, corruption and control.”