THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has reached 16% of its target 72 million ballots for the upcoming May 12 midterm elections, printing about 1.8 million ballots per day, its chief said on Wednesday.
Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia said in a briefing in Manila that about 13 million ballots have already been printed since they resumed printing last Jan. 27.
This is about 1.8 million ballots per day, exceeding Comelec’s initial goal of 1.5 million printouts.
As part of their poll preparation, Comelec will also be hiring additional 10,000 emergency job order personnel to distribute voters’ information sheets and another 300 staff for verification efforts.
The Senate on Tuesday ratified a bill postponing the first-ever parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to Oct. 13 instead of May 12, due to a 2024 Supreme Court declaring Sulu is not a part of the region.
Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Bangsamoro Parliament must have 80 members.
Sulu was originally allocated seven seats, but without its inclusion, only 73 seats would be available, falling short of the mandated number and effectively violating the provisions of the law.
As a contingency plan, should both chambers of Congress move BARMM’s parliamentary elections on Oct. 13, Mr. Garcia said Comelec might ask interested candidates to refile their certificates of candidacy in June.
He also noted there is no longer sufficient time to conduct a plebiscite in Sulu if the proposal to integrate the province into BARMM is enacted into law. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
