Comelec eyes purchasing of new voting machines through 2024 budget

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 22) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it eyes purchasing new vote-counting machines for the 2025 midterm polls despite a cut in its proposed budget from ₱43 billion to ₱27.2 billion for 2024, when the bulk of election preparations will be done.

“Sufficient na po muna ‘yun makapagsimula lang po kami, makapag-procure lang kami ng mga bagong (For now that is sufficient so we can start procuring new) machines because we already set aside the 98,0000 machines that we have so we have to start the procurement process,” Comelec Chairman George Garcia told CNN Philippines’ The Source on Tuesday.

Garcia noted the Comelec’s proposed budget includes allocation for the construction of the commission’s building and its regular agency budget.

What was not taken into account in the Comelec’s proposal was the conduct of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls in 2025 since the Supreme Court ruling was only released after the commission submitted its budget program to the Department of Budget and Management, he explained.

Garcia said the Comelec needs a total of 128,000 vote counting machines for a projected 71 million voters by 2025.