Comelec: Too late to drop Poe from ballot

Sen. Grace Poe at Holy Angel University in Angeles City. Photo by Ryan Leagogo/INQUIRER.net

The name of Sen. Grace Poe can no longer be removed from the official ballot even if the Supreme Court decides to uphold the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) two rulings disqualifying her from running for President in the May elections.

“If we start printing from scratch [without her name], we might not be able to meet the deadline,” said Comelec Chair Andres Bautista.

The deadline for completing the printing of the ballots is April 25. “The printing continues; we have so far printed 10.5 million [ballots],” Bautista said.

He said “delisting” Poe from the official list of presidential candidates was not discussed during en banc meetings. “There were no such discussions,” he said.

“At this point, everyone is included,” he added, referring to a total of six names, including Poe and the late OFW Family Club party-list Rep. Roy Señeres, whose name was retained on the ballot after conflicting requests from his family and his political party.

Bautista said votes for Señeres would be counted, then declared stray. It would be the same should the Supreme Court disqualify Poe.

“If a person dies or is disqualified, then the vote will be physically counted, but will be declared stray,” Bautista said.

Aside from the 54.36 million official ballots, some 2.4 million additional final testing and sealing and demo ballots are also being printed at the National Printing Office in Quezon City.