Comelec finishes printing of manual ballots

The Commission on Elections on Thursday said it has finished printing the official manual ballots and other forms that would be used in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, or BSKE, on 30 October.

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said around 92 million ballots were printed, 480,000 of which had been delivered to the Comelec office. Laudiangco added the ballots are being prepared for distribution nationwide starting in October.

The Comelec will prioritize the delivery of the official BSKE ballots to the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, he explained.

The earlier batch of ballots that had been printed will also be deployed in Batanes while those for the National Capital Region, Central Luzon and CALABARZON would be scheduled for delivery last, he added.

The Comelec said about 68,197,135 ballots had been earmarked for the barangay elections, and 23,857,839 ballots for the Sangguniang Kabataan polls.

Also, around 6,000 test ballots were printed for the pilot automated BSKE in select areas in Dasmariñas City, Cavite and Quezon City.

Laudiangco said that automated election ballots are set to be printed in the coming days, and are expected to be completed within a week.

The Comelec previously announced the conduct of automated BSKE polls in Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City's 6th District, which has about 60,766 voters, along with Barangay Paliparan III and Barangay Zone II in Dasmariñas City, with 51,435 and 1,475 registered voters, respectively.

It targets to print a total of 86,165 official ballots for the barangay elections and 27,511 ballots for the SK elections for these three villages.