#ANCRecap: Director James Jimenez says they have started preparing for the 2019 midterm polls last year. #BeyondPolitics pic.twitter.com/eCPVOuMuuM

— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) April 10, 2018

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) started preparing for the 2019 midterm elections last year, its spokesperson said.

"The elections will be in May, second Monday of May, 2019. When do we usually start preparing? Last year. Because it is an automated election, and now we've been preparing for it," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told ANC.

Jimenez, however, admitted that preparations were not as smooth as they want it to be because of discussions on automation technology.

"The work preparing for the midterm elections is ongoing right now. Unfortunately, that one has been, you know, not as smooth as we'd like, because right now we're in the phase where we're talking about technology," he explained.

"It's the technology that's going to be causing concern," Jimenez added.

According to Jimenez, Comelec is planning on buying the poll automation machines used in the 2016 elections, but the process has been put on hold.

"The machines that we used in 2016, those are the subject of an option to purchase that we activated, so we're buying those machines. But again, recently, that transaction has been called into question so we have to see how that shakes out. At this point, again, there's no guarantee that we're going to go through with it but it is what we have and that's what we're preparing with. But again, that has to be resolved within the year," he explained.