MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines on Monday began its "historic" national and local elections, the first since a global health pandemic broke out 2 years ago, with over 18,000 positions up for grabs.

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"It's all systems go," Commission on Elections (Comelec) acting spokesman John Rex Laudiangco told reporters Monday morning an hour before voters troop to their polling places.

As of 5 a.m., 99.95 percent of 106,174 precincts have submitted their final testing and sealing (FTS) results.

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There are 65.75 million registered voters for this year's elections, excluding the 1,697,215 Filipinos abroad who have registered for overseas voting.

"Mataas 'yung expectations natin (We have high expectations). It's a historic election, a very memorable one, simply because we'd be electing, at least in a pandemic situation, a new president and that's why we're expecting a high turnout of voters," Comelec commissioner George Garcia told a press conference on May 5.

The May 9 election is the country's first major polls since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic In March last year, the Comelec conducted the Palawan plebiscite that sought to determine the possible division of the province into 3.

• With 60 percent voter turnout, Comelec says Palawan plebiscite a success

Voting hours on the May 9, 2022 national and local elections would be from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., or an hour longer than the duration of the 2019 midterm polls.

• Comelec sets May 9, 2022 voting hours from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"Ang hope natin mas dadami 'yung boboto kasi tutal naman alas-6 ng umaga hanggang alas-7 ng gabi 'yung botohan. Medyo mahaba-haba ito kumpara sa dati. So naniniwala ako that Filipinos will troop to the precincts on Monday, definitely lalo po 'yung mga first time voters, mga excited sila dyan," Garcia said.

The Comelec last week assured voters that a failure of election scenario is "not an option" amid reports of defective vote counting machines.

There are two separate national boards of canvassers--one for President and Vice President, and another for senators and partylist, according to Laudiangco. Comelec will canvass votes for senators and partylist representatives and proclaim the winners, he said.

"The votes of President and Vice President will be canvassed po by the National Board of Canvassers by the Congress. They will be the one to canvass and ultimately proclaim the president and vice president," he told ANC.

Bookmark the ABS-CBN News Halalan results page to see the partial unofficial tally of election returns.

For other updates, visit ABS-CBN News' live blog here.

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