Mock elections moved to January 25 —Comelec

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said the mock elections have been moved to January 25 following Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order against the disqualification of some aspirants. 

“Yung ating mock elections na dapat naka-schedule sa Sabado ay ating ni-reset yan at ginawa po nating [Enero] 25 more or less,” Comelec chairperson George Garcia told Unang Balita in an interview. 

(Our mock elections that were supposed to be scheduled for Saturday, we reset that and made it January 25 more or less.) 

“Hopefully, natapos na namin yung babaguhing database election management system at pagse-serialize ng mga pangalan ng nga kandidato. Pati pagbabago pong mahigit 1,000 na ballot faces sa buong bansa,” he added. 

(Hopefully, we have finished modifying the database election management system and serialization of the names of the candidates. Also, the changes in more than 1,000 ballot faces across the country.)

On Tuesday, the Comelec suspended the printing of the ballots after an SC ruling stopping the poll body from disqualifying five aspirants from the 2025 national and local elections. 

Aside from the ballots and mock elections, the Comelec made adjustments on the candidates’ database, election management system (EMS), the automated counting machine (ACM), and the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS).

The poll body generated 1,667 ballot face templates reflecting the SC decision, created an inventory of all printed ballots, and conducted a study on whether the changes in the EMS warrant another trusted build.

Further, the Comelec also cancelled the live test for the trusted build of the online voting and counting system (OVCS).

—VAL, GMA Integrated News