Comelec halts ballot printing

MANILA — The Comelec yesterday announced it is temporarily stopping the printing of ballots for the 2016 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls, GMA News reported.

The Comelec announcement comes after President Rodrigo Duterte openly expressed his desire to postpone the elections, considering that drug money may be used to fund the campaigns of those running for barangay posts.

“If there is still no law, or a joint resolution from Congress on the postponement by September 1, we will resume the printing,” Comelec Printing Committee head Genevieve Guevarra said in a statement.

The Comelec has started the printing of the ballots for barangay elections on August 21, while the ballots for the SK polls is slated to begin on September 1.

Each ballot costs P3 from the initial price of P3.80 as priced by the National Printing Office, Comelec said, adding that it is expecting to shell out at least P255million for the printing of 85 million ballots for the elections scheduled on October 31.

The Comelec’s Calendar of Activities shows that the filing of certificates of candidacy will be from October 3 to 5, Wednesday, and the election period will start on October 1 and end on November 7.

Meanwhile, the campaign period for candidates will be on October 21 to October 29, and Comelec set the voting time on October 31 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Unlike the May 9 polls, the barangay and SK elections will be manual.