Elections in the Philippines
Elections in the Philippines are of several types. The president, vice-president, and the senators are elected for a six-year term, while the members of the House of Representatives, governors, vice-governors, members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, mayors, vice-mayors, members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod/members of the Sangguniang Bayan, barangay officials, and the members of the Sangguniang Kabataan are elected to serve for a three-year term.
Congress has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 316 seats since 2022, of which 80% are contested in single seat electoral districts and 20% are allotted to party-lists according to a modified Hare quota with remainders disregarded and a three-seat cap. These party list seats are only accessible to marginalized and under-represented groups and parties, local parties, and sectoral wings of major parties that represent the marginalized. The Constitution of the Philippines allows the House of Representatives to have more than 250 members by statute without a need for a constitutional amendment. The Senate has 24 members who are elected on a nationwide at-large basis; they do not represent any geographical district. Half of the Senate is renewed every three years.
The Philippines has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party normally has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form a coalition government. The Commission on Elections is responsible for running the elections.
Under the Constitution, elections for the members of Congress and local positions occur every second Monday of every third year after May 1992, and presidential and vice presidential elections occur every second Monday of May every sixth year after May 1992. All elected officials, except those at the barangay level, start their terms of office on June 30 of the election year.
History
There were a few attempts to nationally elect local officials during the Spanish colonial period. Following the defeat of Spain in the Spanish–American War and the Philippines later in the Philippine–American War, the Captaincy General of the Philippines and the First Philippine Republic were replaced by the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, multiple had been elections held throughout peaceful areas of the country for provincial and local officials.The Philippine-American civil and military authorities supervised the first municipal elections, having chosen Baliuag as the site of the 1899 Philippine local elections, the first Philippine elections of May 7, 1899. Francisco Guererro was elected the First Presidente Municipal. The Filipinos gathered at the plaza of the St. Augustine Church after the Holy Mass, and thereafter the officials were selected based on the qualifications for voters set by the Americans.
During the First Philippine Republic, an attempt was made to elect a national legislature but the former did not control the whole Philippine archipelago so no nationwide election could be held. The first fully national election for a fully elected legislative body was in 1907 for the Philippine Assembly, the elected chamber of the bicameral Philippine Legislature during the American colonial period. Starting in 1909, periodic local and Philippine Assembly elections were done concurrently until 1916, until the Jones Law reorganized the Philippine Legislature to the Senate and the House of Representatives, both now popularly elected. This setup continued until the Tydings–McDuffie Act authorized the then U.S. territory to draft a constitution. The ensuing 1935 constitution instituted the Commonwealth of the Philippines, and with it the presidency, vice presidency, and the unicameral National Assembly, then elections were done for these offices later that year.
The National Assembly amended the constitution, reconstituting a bicameral Congress, in 1941. The first elections under this setup was done later that year. World War II intervened, and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines led to the creation of the Second Philippine Republic, with elections done in 1943 for its own National Assembly. In 1945, the Americans defeated the Japanese, President Jose P. Laurel declared the dissolution of the Second Republic, and the Commonwealth was reestablished. Commonwealth elections meant for 1945 were done in April 1946, and independence was granted on July 4, 1946.
From 1947 to 1971, there were biennial elections: every two years, eight out of 24 senators were elected, and for every four years starting in 1949, the presidency, vice presidency and the entire House of Representatives were at stake, while for every four years starting 1947, local offices were at stake.
On September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. The constitutional convention, which had earlier been elected in 1970, submitted its draft constitution. A plebiscite approved this constitution in 1973. A series of referendums consolidated Marcos's rule, and the first local elections were done in 1975. The first parliamentary election to the unicameral Batasang Pambansa, the national parliament, was done in 1978. The first presidential election under the 1973 constitution was done in 1981. A special "snap" presidential election was held in 1986, with Marcos being declared as the winner. There were allegations of massive fraud, and the People Power Revolution drove Marcos from power.
Corazon Aquino succeeded Marcos as president. A new constitution was approved in a plebiscite in 1987. Legislative elections were done later that year, then for every three years thereafter in 1992. Unlike in the 1941 amendments to the 1935 constitution, 12 senators, all members of the House of Representatives, and local officials are to be elected every three years; 24 senators were elected in 1987 and 1992, and 12 were subsequently elected starting in 1995. The president and vice president now have six-year terms, and were first elected in 1992. Party-list representatives were first elected in 1998. This is the current setup.
Voting
Qualification
Every citizen 18 years old or above on election day who has been a resident of the Philippines for at least a year and for at least six months in the place where she or he is registered, and who is not otherwise disqualified by law, may vote. To actually vote, a citizen has to register. COMELEC has a registration period of several months prior to the election. Those who are not registered do not appear on the voters' list and are ineligible to vote despite being otherwise qualified to do so.People aged 15 to 30 may vote in Sangguniang Kabataan elections. As with their adult counterparts, COMELEC has a registration period a few months prior to the election.
Absentee voters
are divided into two types: the local absentee voters and the overseas absentee voters. Local absentee voters include people who are working during election day. These include soldiers, policemen, government employees, mediamen and the like. Overseas absentee voters are Filipinos residing abroad. They are eligible to vote for national positions only. Overseas absentee voters may vote in Philippine embassies and consulates, and voting begins as early as 4 months prior to the election. The voting can be as long as 6 months in very few situations.Process
Once a registered voter finds their name in the voters' list and locates the correct precinct, they may queue in line for the distribution of the ballot.Prior to the 2008 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao general election, voters have to write the names of the candidates next to the positions in which they are running. COMELEC-approved nicknames may be used by the voters in writing the names. After the polling period ends, the Board of Election Inspectors counts the ballots by hand. Once all the ballots are counted, the election returns will now be sent to the city or municipal Board of Canvassers, political parties and other groups.
The city or municipal Board of Canvassers canvasses the votes from all polling precincts within their jurisdiction and prepares two documents: a Statement of Votes in which all votes from all candidates in all positions per precinct is listed; and a Certificate of Canvass, a document showing the vote totals of all candidates within the Board of Canvassers' jurisdiction.
If the city or municipal Board of Canvassers' jurisdiction is an independent city with its own congressional district, they will send their SOV and COC to the national Board of Canvassers. If it is otherwise, they will send their SOV and COC to the provincial Board of Canvassers where the votes as stated from the city or municipal COC will be canvassed. The provincial Board of Canvassers sends their SOV and COC to the national Board of Canvassers once canvassing is done. The national Board of Canvassers then canvasses all COCs and declares the winners for national positions.
Election automation
Since the 2008 Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao general election, the voters have to shade the oval that was indicated before the candidate's name, and a voting machine manufactured by Smartmatic automatically counts each ballot as it is fed into it. The results are then printed as the election return and sent electronically to the city or municipal Board of Canvassers.In 2016, for the fourth time in a row, the Philippines automated their elections using electronic vote counting machines. The deployment of 92,500 of these machines was the largest in the world. Brazil and India, countries which also use technology to process their votes, employ e-voting instead of an automated count.
For the 2019 elections, COMELEC presented its source code for review by accredited U.S. software testing company Pro V&V in an effort to make the automated elections transparent.
For the 2025 midterm elections, COMELEC and Miru Systems Co. Ltd, on March 11, 2024, signed the 2025 automated election system service contract with Transparency Audit/Count at Palacio del Gobernador. On February 22, 2024, the COMELEC en banc held that the Miru Systems Co Ltd, Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc. is the "Single Calculated and Responsive Bid" with a bid offer of PHP17,988,878,226.55. The contract includes 110,000 automated counting machines, election management systems, consolidation and canvassing systems, ballot printing, ballot boxes and other peripherals.