Comelec Announces Early Voting Hours For 2025 Polls
COMELEC – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that they will implement early voting hours for 2025 polls.
The Commission on Elections will implement an “early voting hours” policy nationwide for the 2025 midterm and Bangsamoro parliamentary elections. Comelec Chairman George Garcia announced that the policy was approved following its successful pilot test during the previous barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
However, early voting will not be mandatory for vulnerable groups. “Come the 2025 elections, we will already allow the elderly, persons with disability and pregnant women nationwide to vote exclusively between 5 a.m. until 7 a.m.,” Garcia said in a radio interview.
Based on a report from Philstar, George Garcia mentioned that Comelec is still awaiting the passage of a proposed law for early voting.
“But it has not been passed yet. So this will be the way of the Comelec, the early voting hours,” he explained.
The Comelec chairman highlighted that the early voting schedule would benefit vulnerable sectors by allowing them to avoid voting alongside the general population.
“They will greatly benefit from this since the weather is not yet hot outside and there are not too many people in the polling precincts yet,” Garcia said.
According to the report, George Garcia noted that the pilot test in 2023 showed positive results, with elderly voters arriving as early as 3 a.m.
In the 2023 elections, vulnerable groups in Naga City and Muntinlupa City were allowed to vote between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. The pilot test occurred alongside a proposed bill in Congress that would grant separate voting days for eligible seniors, persons with disabilities, lawyers, and health workers before election day.
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