NAMFREL Flags Voting Machine Issues, Data Gaps in 2025 Polls

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) released its preliminary assessment of the 2025 national and local elections, highlighting both the successful voter turnout and the persistence of technical, logistical, and security challenges that hampered the integrity and efficiency of the electoral process.

NAMFREL extended its congratulations to the Filipino electorate for “turning out in droves” on election day, reaffirming the vitality of democratic participation across the country.

The watchdog group also expressed deep appreciation to its Bantay ng Bayan volunteers, who were deployed nationwide to monitor the elections and submit field reports in real time.

“Filipinos again made their voices heard through their votes,” NAMFREL said in its report, even as the group noted disruptions ranging from violence to technical failures.

While NAMFREL initially declared the May 2025 elections as “generally peaceful and orderly,” its follow-up field reports revealed disturbing patterns in select areas that merit deeper scrutiny and immediate institutional response.

Election-Related Violence

NAMFREL condemned confirmed incidents of violence in several municipalities of Lanao del Sur, Silay City in Negros Occidental, and Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte.

The organization urged authorities to conduct swift and impartial investigations.

“Violence has no place in a democratic society,” NAMFREL said, underscoring the urgency of accountability to maintain trust in future electoral exercises.

In the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), NAMFREL’s presence was strengthened through its involvement in the Independent Election Monitoring Center (IEMC), a multisectoral initiative based at Notre Dame University in Cotabato City.

Alongside groups such as the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and the Coalition for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT), the IEMC tracked electoral violence, disseminated real-time reports, and engaged directly with COMELEC and local stakeholders.

This effort is expected to expand ahead of the October 2025 BARMM Parliamentary Elections.

Voting Machine Failures

One of the most persistent problems reported by NAMFREL volunteers involved automated counting machines (ACMs).

Although many incidents were resolved on-site, they resulted in significant delays and voter frustration.

Common complaints included:

• Ballots rejected due to dirty scanner lenses, requiring manual cleaning.
• Paper jams caused by tears or creases in ballots.
• Sluggish machine response from suspected overheating.
• Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) issues.
• Reports of voters seeing overvote messages on their VVPATs despite claiming they did not overvote.

While technical teams managed to resolve many issues, these delays compounded existing infrastructure problems at polling stations and revealed the aging or inadequate condition of some machines.

Polling Place Problems

NAMFREL observers also flagged polling place practices that compromised voter privacy and accessibility.

In some locations, members of the electoral board (EB) inserted completed ballots into machines on behalf of voters, violating standard procedures meant to protect ballot secrecy.

Inadequate distribution of ballot secrecy folders led to delays, while long queues, overcrowding, and insufficient seating created barriers—especially for vulnerable voters such as the elderly and persons with disabilities.

NAMFREL did praise the widespread presence of Voter Assistance Desks (VADs) and the decision to implement early voting hours in some precincts as “bright spots” that improved voter experience.

Result Transmission Delays

NAMFREL identified critical delays in the transmission of election returns (ERs) to stakeholder servers.

COMELEC had earlier assured that ERs would begin arriving shortly after polls closed and continue at 15-minute intervals.

However, stakeholders—including NAMFREL, PPCRV, and political parties—received no results until 8:56 p.m., several hours after voting had ended.

“This deviation from past election practices raises transparency concerns,” NAMFREL said, adding that such delays were not observed even during the 2016 and 2019 elections, which had faced isolated technical issues.

Of greater concern was the reported double recording of election returns due to the way COMELEC’s system “packed” ERs into result packages.

This method—wherein each new transmission included previously sent ERs—resulted in compounded datasets and temporary inflation of vote counts in early tallies.

NAMFREL emphasized that their system detected and corrected these duplicates, but urged COMELEC to explain why this method is still being used.

The group called for transparency on whether the intermediary process that packages and transmits ERs is housed in the stakeholder servers or occurs elsewhere.

Operation QR Count

To empower public participation in election monitoring, NAMFREL launched Operation QR Count 2025 (OQC 2025), an open-source effort that allows voters to independently verify election results.

Two mobile apps were released: one for scanning QR codes on election returns (ERs) posted outside polling places, and another for VVPAT verification.

Over 4,300 users downloaded the public QR scanning app, with 668,671 ER QR codes scanned from 2,787 precincts nationwide.

The VVPAT app was used in 52 of 60 approved clustered precincts across Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and BARMM, scanning a total of 49,432 VVPAT QR codes.

NAMFREL reported technical issues such as difficulties in data transmission and challenges in scanning due to phone hardware and lighting conditions, but maintained that the program met its objectives of building an independently verifiable results database.

“With time and budget constraints, the system set a framework for a precinct-level audit done within Election Day,” the group said.

Analytics Dashboard Partnership

In a pioneering move to bolster evidence-based election oversight, NAMFREL partnered with Asia Pacific College (APC) and Geodata Systems Technologies, Inc. to launch a data analytics platform.

The collaboration enabled APC students and faculty to process ER data, identify anomalies, and create dashboards for public consumption.

Geodata contributed geospatial tools that allowed for precinct-level mapping and comparative analysis with 2022 returns.

This real-time aggregation helped identify two early trends: the delay in ER transmission to stakeholder servers and the presence of duplicate entries due to compounding result packages.

NAMFREL hailed the partnership as a model for future civic-technology initiatives aimed at safeguarding electoral integrity.

Manual Audit Process

NAMFREL is also part of the Random Manual Audit Committee (RMAC), alongside COMELEC, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and civil society organizations including PPCRV, LENTE, and PICPA.

Ballot boxes from 762 clustered precincts were randomly selected on election day using PSA-developed software.

The manual audit process began on May 14, 2025, at Citadines Bay City Manila, and aims to verify the accuracy of machine-generated vote counts.

Results from the RMA are expected to be published alongside NAMFREL’s final election report.

Final Recommendations Soon

NAMFREL will submit a comprehensive final report to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), which will include findings from the election period, an evaluation of technological performance, and actionable recommendations.

“Our commitment is to continually help ensure that Philippine elections remain free, fair, and credible,” NAMFREL concluded.

The group’s independent monitoring remains vital in a country where technical glitches, delayed transmissions, and electoral violence still cast long shadows on the integrity of the democratic process.

Broader Reform Outlook

NAMFREL’s assessment comes at a time of increasing demand for electoral reform and transparency, especially ahead of the BARMM Parliamentary Elections in October and the 2028 general elections.

The 2025 midterms have served as a barometer for how well electoral bodies and support systems are adapting to both technological evolution and persistent regional challenges.

Key takeaways from NAMFREL’s report include the need for:

• Improved technical training and preventive maintenance for ACMs.
• Reconsideration of ER packaging systems to avoid duplication.
• Enhanced data transparency through accessible dashboards.
• Proactive contingency planning in conflict-prone regions.
• Strengthened civic education and digital participation.

NAMFREL will be submitting a final report to the COMELEC on the findings of its observation, identifying areas that could be further strengthened, and recommending measures to help ensure the conduct of more efficient and transparent electoral exercises.