The 2019 Philippine general election was conducted on May 13, 2019. A midterm election, those elected therein will take office on June 30, 2019, midway through the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

This article needs to be updated. (May 2019)

Quick Facts Registered, Turnout ...

2019 Philippine general election

← 2016 2022 →
Registered	63,665,944
Turnout	46,937,139
2019 Philippine Senate election
← 2016 May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13) 2022 →
← outgoing members Senators elected →
12 (of the 24) seats to the Senate of the Philippines 13 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
First party Second party Third party   Leader Koko Pimentel Mar Roxas Nancy Binay Party PDP–Laban Liberal UNA Alliance HNP Otso Diretso UNA Seats won 9 0 1 Popular vote 203,023,825 50,038,801 14,974,776 Percentage 56.2% 13.8% 4.1%
Senate President before election Tito Sotto NPC Elected Senate President Tito Sotto NPC
2019 Philippine House of Representatives elections
← 2016 May 13, 2019 (2019-05-13) 2022 →
All 304 seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines 153 seats needed for a majority
Party % Seats +/– PDP–Laban 31.22 82 +79 Nacionalista 16.10 42 +18 NPC 14.31 37 −5 NUP 9.51 25 +2 Liberal 5.73 18 −97 Lakas 5.11 12 +8 PFP 2.38 5 +5 HNP 1.61 3 +3 Aksyon 0.98 1 0 PMP 0.98 1 +1 Bukidnon Paglaum 0.83 2 +1 LDP 0.62 2 0 HTL 0.49 1 +1 PPPL 0.46 2 +2 Bileg 0.39 1 +1 PRP 0.34 1 +1 Asenso Abrenio 0.29 1 +1 Asenso Manileño 0.21 2 0 CDP 0.20 1 +1 Navoteño 0.20 1 +1 KABAKA 0.16 1 0 Independent 4.97 2 −2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Speaker before Speaker after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo PDP–Laban Alan Peter Cayetano Nacionalista

Close

The following positions were contested:

• 12 seats in the Senate of the Philippines
• All seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines
• All governors, vice governors and regular members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Councils) in the provinces of the Philippines
• All mayors, vice mayors and regular members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Councils) or Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Councils) in the cities or municipalities of the Philippines

Under the Local Government Code and the 1987 constitution, all terms start on June 30, 2019, and end on June 30, 2022, except for elected senators, whose terms shall end on June 30, 2025. The Commission on Elections administered the election.

Due to the drive to change the constitution to make the Philippines a federation, Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez said in January 2018 that the cancellation of the 2019 elections was possible, as a transition government would be needed. Later, Duterte ruled out the cancellation the election.^[14]

By July, after the consultative committee submitted their draft constitution to Duterte and Congress, Alvarez proposed to cancel the 2019 elections so that Congress could concentrate on revising the constitution.^[15] Senate President Tito Sotto said that this was possible by Congress passing a law for the cancellation of the election.^[16] Members of the consultative committee, on the other hand, preferred holding the election. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that "I suggest elections will continue (because people suspect that) we are proposing federalism so that the elections can be postponed. It is not true, not at all."^[17]

Later that month, Senator Panfilo Lacson said that most senators, including those who were running for reelection, would have blocked any moves by the lower house to cancel the election. This came as Alvarez switched his preferred mode of amending the constitution via a People's Initiative. Senator Franklin Drilon earlier stated that the minority bloc would have sued if Alvarez's plan of cancelling the election pushed through.^[18]

With the ouster of Alvarez by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as speaker in July 2018, the latter said that she preferred the elections pushing through.^[19]

On May 13, the number of malfunctioned vote counting machines (VCMs) tripled compared to the 2016 election.^[21] According to COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez, 400–600 out of 85,000 VCMs across the country (representing 0.7%) encountered glitches. The machines were from the 2016 elections, and the COMELEC admitted that it could be because the machines are not new.^[21]

Faulty SD cards were also reported to be the cause of malfunction. The substandard ballot forms as well as markers that bleed ink are other causes of malfunction and anomalies. The COMELEC will probe the suppliers: Triplex Enterprises Incorporated for the ballot paper and marking pens and S1 Technologies Incorporated and Silicon Valley Computer Group joint venture for the SD cards.^[22]

Jimenez, however, said that the problems experienced were still within range of expected range of expectation, as problematic machines account for only less than 1 percent of total machines used.^[23]

There are reports of running out of ballots in a polling precinct in Alburquerque, Bohol; affected voters have waited for two hours before the extra ballots was delivered at 3pm.^[24] At around 10, the COMELEC has experienced problems with the transparency server where the unofficial tally has been stuck for hours, with only 0.38% of polling precincts have managed to transmit the results.^[25][26] But experts agree that the glitches don't necessarily mean cheating took place.^[27] The transmission happened, according to PPCRV Chairperson Myla Villanueva. In an interview, Villanueva said that 'results were receiver by transparency server continuously, despite media temporarily not being able to see the results.' She added that 'most importantly, the ERs match with transmitted results.' ^[28]

Despite the glitches, the random manual audits (RMA) conducted days after the elections show that the 2019 midterms yielded the highest rate of accuracy among the previous automated elections. Based on the 2019 RMA, the accuracy rate for the senatorial votes was at 99.9971 percent; for members of the House 99.9946 percent; and 99.9941 percent for mayor.^[29]

The COMELEC recorded at least 20 people have been killed in an election-related incidents and 43 incidents during the course of election campaign as of May 13,^[30] most notably the killing of AKO Bicol congressman Rodel Batocabe on December 22, 2018.^[31] There are reported violence during the election day: a shooting occurred at the polling center in Panglima Estino, Sulu where six have been injured.^[32]

In a Pulse Asia opinion poll dated June 24–30, 2019, 82% of those surveyed found the election to be believable while 82% said the release of the results were fast. Meanwhile, 10% of respondents found their names missing in the voters list, 4% of their registration was deactivated, 1% of the vote counting machine malfunctioned, as the issues in the election.^[33]