File photo taken in 2022 shows sample ballots for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections being printed during a media tour of the National Printing Office in Diliman, Quezon City. (LYN RILLON / INQUIRER)
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections suspended the printing of ballots for the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections due to a power supply interruption around noontime Monday at the National Printing Office (NPO), Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said.
Due to the service interruption, Comelec temporarily halted the printing of election ballots upon orders of Comelec chairman George Garcia and in accordance with the poll body’s transparency policies.
“May power supply po ang printers at printing area. Ang nawalan po ng power supply ay ang CCTV at servers kaya minabuti po ng Comelec na ipahinto ang printing activities ng NPO until ma-restore po ito,” Laudiangco told reporters.
(The printers and printing area have power supply. The ones that lost power supply were the CCTV and servers, so the Comelec decided to stop the printing activities of the NPO until it is restored.)
The printing is set to resume at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 22, once the CCTV power lines have been restored.
“Upon restoration of power [of] CCTVs, we will resume livestream, and commence printing the actual ballots in series per the stated localities,” Laudiangco added.
In case the CCTV lines don’t get fixed on time, Laudiangco assured the public that the Comelec will deploy coverage teams to ensure that the printing will be conducted while on livestream.
The barangay and SK elections are scheduled on October 30, with the campaign period slated from October 19 to 28.