More than 73% or 49,737,783 of the total 67,442, 616 ballots have already been printed by the Commission of Elections (Comelec) for the May 2022 national and local elections.
The Comelec’s data show that the ballots for 16 regions in the country, including the Cordillera Administrative Region, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Caraga are almost 100% printed.
On Tuesday (March 15), the Comelec had a walk-through of the printing of ballots with the media and stakeholders at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.
The ballots underwent verification to check the margins, discoloration, and to see if the vote counting machine receives the vote reflected on the ballot.
Around 7 million official ballots for the National Capital Region were also scheduled to be printed on the same day.
However, the poll body was criticized by some political parties and election lawyer Romulo Macalintal for not allowing representatives of candidates and partylists to observe the ballot printing process.
This was after Comelec disallowed Vice President Leni Robredo’s camp to send watchers to the printing office last February. Macalintal said he wants a random testing of printed ballots to ensure they are accepted by vote counting machines.
If the Comelec refuses, he said they can go to the Supreme Court to “file a petition for grave abuse of discretion” and “petition for mandamus directing the Comelec to allow” them to send watchers during the printing.
He said they can also ask the high court “for the meantime stop the printing of the ballots which have not yet [been] printed.”
Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said it will be tackled in their en banc meeting.
Starting March 16, the NPO will be open to political parties and candidates representatives for demonstration and inspection.
“If you try to read my letter, it’s not a rejection but something like — as of now ‘di pa po pwede. But ito na nga, okay na tayo, okay na ‘yung pandemic natin at wala nang surge,” he said.
The poll body also assured they are on track with their timeline to finish the ballot printing in the first week of April. – Report from Karen Villanda/AG-rir