Deferred polls? Just use previously printed ballots – Comelec

With both the Senate and House of Representatives approving the postponement of tthe barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista assured the public yesterday that the official ballots already printed could still be used.

In an interview, Bautista said they sought the opinion of the Comelec’s Law Department and it confirmed that there is no legal obstacle in utilizing the ballots whenever a new schedule for the elections is set.

“I don’t think the ballots will be wasted,” Bautista said.

Bautista added the poll body can retain the date of the elections on the ballot or place stickers to change it or erase using correction fluid. But he stressed it would be up to the Comelec en banc to decide at the right time.

He said the commission will just have to issue a resolution on the validity of the printed ballots.

Under Section 181 of the Omnibus Election Code, official ballots shall bear the date of the polls, among other pieces of information.

As of Sept. 20, the Comelec had already printed a total of 27,950,855 barangay and SK ballots, out of the 59,548,410 ballots needed to be printed.

The poll body was supposed to print 77,261,086 ballots but this was reduced after the Mindanao polls were shelved when martial law was declared in the region.