Comelec uneasy on ballot printing

By Leslie Ann Aquino 

 The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is studying the possibility of delaying the start of the printing of the ballots that will be used for the October 23 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.

“We are studying if we can delay it for a bit or just slow it,” Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said in an interview.

 He said Comelec is  also studying up to when  they can delay the printing.

The law on the postponement of the October 31, 2016 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections was approved by President Duterte on October 15, 2016. The law moved the election to October 23, 2017.

COMELEC BUILDING / CREDIT: Cultural Heritage Monument in the Philippines via Wikimedia/ Manila Bulletin

The poll body is eyeing to start the printing of the more than 70 million ballots this month.

 However, Congress has yet to decide on the proposal to postpone the village and youth polls since it is still on recess.

There is a pending bill in the Senate seeking to postpone the village and youth polls to October 2018 while the bill at the House of Representatives is looking to reset the  exercise to May 2020.

Bautista said they are concerned because they have to print 78 million ballots, 57 million for the village polls and 21 million for SK polls.

“The good thing though since it’s manual elections, the ballots are not precinct specific. But on the other hand, we need to print a big number of ballots,” he said.

In the past, the Comelec has deliberately ramped down the pace of its Barangay Elections preparations in response to the perceived imminence of legislation to postpone the electoral exercise. 

But Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said that any slowing down of their preparations must be based on sufficiently high levels of probability of postponement, such that the postponement can no longer be considered a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when.’

“The determination of the existence of such conditions depends solely on the judgment and discretion of the COMELEC en banc,” he said.

Tags: ballot printing, barangay and SK elections, Comelec, Comelec uneasy on ballot printing, Comelecchairman Andres Bautista, delay, Manila Bulletin, possibility of delaying the start of printing