The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Jerry Eloja
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision supporting the country’s fully automated election system for the 2026 elections.
COMELEC Chairman George Erwin Garcia said the ruling is a major win for the election system. He explained that the Court confirmed there is no law requiring manual counting during election day.
The Supreme Court said the automated system already has enough security measures. These include voter-verified paper audit trails and random manual audits to protect the accuracy of the results.
The Court also warned that doing manual counting together with automated counting could slow down the process and increase the risk of manipulation.
Because of the ruling, the legal support for the automated election system has become stronger ahead of the 2026 national and local elections.
COMELEC previously said that adding manual counting could delay the transmission and announcement of election results.