Comelec starts printing of ‘manual’ ballots

After the Supreme Court issued rulings that delayed the printing of ballots for the May 9 election, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) scrambled for a solution and decided on Thursday night to proceed with the printing of around 220,000 ballots but without the names of candidates.

The poll body will use the “manual ballots” for around 60,000 local absentee voters, 79,000 overseas voters and 86,000 voters in 63 barangays in North Cotabato that joined the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Manual ballots are not preprinted with the candidates’ names unlike the ballots used in the automated elections.

James Jimenez, spokesperson for the Comelec, said the National Printing Office (NPO) started printing about 60,000 local absentee ballots at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

After printing the local absentee ballots, he said the Comelec would next print the 79,000 ballots for overseas voters who would vote manually, and then the 86,000 manual ballots for BARMM.

Comelec earlier said the three contracted printers could print a maximum of 1.1 million ballots per day.

Jimenez did not say when the printing of the rest of the record 67,442,714 ballots would start, with the elections only 108 days away.

Comelec failed to release the ballot face template with the final list of candidates after the Supreme Court ruling.

The poll body earlier said the printing of ballots will start on Jan. 15, but after the Comelec failed to meet that deadline, the commission said the NPO will start printing the 1,697,202 ballots on Jan. 19 for overseas voters, who will start voting on April 10.

After the overseas ballots, the NPO was supposed to print the rest or the 65,745,512 ballots to be used in the country by April 21.