The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday said that the reprinting of ballots was moved from January 20 to January 22 after the Supreme Court (SC) allowed three more local bets to run for their respective positions.
Poll spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said that last week, the SC issued five TROs against the Comelec for the declaration of nuisance candidates and cancellation of certificates of candidacy of five political aspirants: Subair Mustapha for senator, Charles Savellano (representative of Ilocos Sur), Chito Balintay (governor of Zambales), Edgar Erice (representative of Caloocan City) and Florendo Ritualo (councilor of San Juan City).
On Friday, the SC ordered to include the names of Marie Grace David for vice mayor of Limay, Bataan; Mary Dominique Oñate (mayor of Palompon, Leyte) and Aldrin Sta. Ana (mayor of Bocaue, Bulacan) in the official ballots.
The move resulted in the suspension of the printing of official ballots by the Comelec.
Ballot reprinting cannot happen by Monday, January 30,” Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia told reporters via Viber.
Laudiangco said the postponement of reprinting the ballots was due to the creation of the new trusted build of the election management system (EMS).
“The changes and amendments in the EMS are extensive. It’s not a simple program where we can just add a [candidates’] name, as others think,” Laudiangco said, adding that “the EMS has no added feature which means, even if we want to add, we can’t do it just that easy. We have to put an add feature before we can add names.”
