THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it aims to resume reprinting ballots for the midterm polls on Monday, after the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the inclusion of five previously disqualified political aspirants in the ballots.
Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia, in a virtual briefing on Wednesday, said updated ballot faces featuring the names of the five candidates could be available by Sunday, Jan. 19.
He added that once these new faces are uploaded on the Comelec website, it signals the poll body’s readiness to resume ballot reprinting.
“This is the first time in our electoral history that the Comelec will order a reprinting, back to zero, of the ballots in compliance with the order of our Supreme Court,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
About 6 million ballots for the national positions were wasted. Each ballot costs about P22, Mr. Garcia noted.
The poll body has yet to start printing local position ballots. “There’s no problem with the local positions since the ballots have not yet been printed,” he noted.
This comes after the high tribunal in full court issued five TROs against the poll body on Tuesday, allowing the names of five bets to be included in the ballots after Comelec barred them last year from participating in the upcoming national and local elections on May 12.
One of them is a senatorial aspirant and Moro leader, Subair Guinthum Mustapha.
The rest are gunning for local seats: three are eyeing seats in the House of Representatives and one for a gubernatorial position.
Before the poll body resumes its printing, Spokesman John Rex C. Laudiangco told BusinessWorld through Viber that they would first finish the changes in the candidates’ database, electronic management system, automated counting machines, consolidated canvassing system, online and voting counting system, and when they have uploaded the ballot face templates after generation and serialization.
Following this, they would also appeal to the Commission on Audit to have the 6 million ballots shredded to prevent them from being used in the actual election.
Despite the setback, Mr. Garcia said the election will go on as planned on May 12 as “they are in control of the situation.”
The Philippines will hold a midterm election next year. Filipinos will elect their congressmen, mayors, vice-mayors and members of city councils on May 12, 2025. Twelve of the 24-member Senate will also be replaced. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
