MANILA (UPDATE)— The Commission on Elections, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), said Thursday it might proclaim winning senators ahead of party-lists.

The poll body is in charge of canvassing of votes for senators and party-lists.

Acting Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said it could proclaim winners as late as early next week, a slight delay from the initial proclamation target this week.

"Una po sa lahat maaari po mas maaga tayo makapag-proclaim ng senators kesa sa party list. 'Yung senators po kasi it's just a popularity vote," said Laudiangco.

(First of all, we might proclaim senators ahead of party-lists because with senators, it's just a popularity vote.)

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Laudiangco said the Comelec has canvassed over 50 percent of the certificates of canvass (COC). The poll body has not yet released an updated running tally of their partial, official canvass.

"We are expected to canvass 173 certificates of canvass. We are done already on 82; 50.36 percent na po ang naka-canvass natin on the start of the 3rd day, we expect to canvass more today po," Laudiangco said.

(We have canvassed 50.36 percent on the start of the third day.)

However, not all certificates have been submitted to the NBOC yet.

The Comelec ordered special elections in 14 barangays in the towns of Butig, Binidayan and Tubaran in Lanao del Sur.

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A minute resolution of the Comelec en banc cited that for Butig, the official ballots were stolen and could not be retrieved, while a policeman was stabbed while protecting the vote-counting machines. Violence was cited as reason for the other 2 towns.

The resolution authorized the conduct of the special elections on May 15 or another date that the commission may set. It also ordered the deployment of police personnel as electoral boards.

There was also no election yet in Shanghai, China, because of the pandemic lockdown there.

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The manual count of the local absentee voting is also still ongoing.

Laudiangco projects voter turnout for Halalan 2022 at a maximum of 81 percent.

“We expect more or less 54 million out of the 67 million,” he said.

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