MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday said it is committed to conducting an accurate and fair Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections on September 14.
The commitment was made during the ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Agreement for the conduct of random manual audit (RMA) for the BARMM polls on Friday in Intramuros, Manila.
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia reiterated the importance of the random manual auditing, as mandated under Republic Act 9369, to guarantee the credibility and accuracy of the vote counting machines (VCMs) under the automated election system (AES).
READ: Comelec all set for BARMM polls
“Pagtulong-tulungan natin na mapigilan, at least dito sa kauna-unahang Bangsamoro election, historic kauna-unahan na mawala ang lahat ng mga irregularidad na yan kung hindi man ito ma-minimize man lang,” Garcia said.
(Let us work together to prevent—or at least minimize—all those irregularities, especially in this historic first-ever Bangsamoro election.)
The RMA examines the accuracy of the VCMs’ vote tallies through manual verification.
Garcia cited that the accuracy rate of the May 2025 midterm election was 99.99997 percent, which is the highest recorded by the commission.
At the historic BARMM election, around 2.3 million voters are expected to vote 80 members of parliament.
On the question regarding cases of pre-shaded ballots, Garcia said that security measures and monitoring must be heightened all throughout the final sealing and testing of the AES, primarily during the distribution and opening of ballot boxes in precincts.
“At the same time pag dinidistribute sa mga guro dapat sinusubaybayan din natin. At the same time, ang lagi naming in-emphasize na importante pa, ang final testing and sealing,” he said.
(At the same time, when distributing to teachers, we should also monitor that. At the same time, we also emphasize the importance of the final testing and sealing.) /gsg
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