THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has again postponed the reprinting of official ballots for the May 12 elections following two new temporary restraining orders (TROs) issued by the Supreme Court (SC), including one in favor of a national candidate.
Comelec Chairperson George Garcia announced that the reprinting, initially set for January 22, will likely be moved to January 25.
To accommodate the changes, Comelec staff will work overtime from Wednesday to Friday to update the database and include the names of two aspirants favored by the TROs.
“Our team will work overnight to adjust the database, reserialize the ballots, and modify 1,697 ballot faces nationwide,” Garcia explained.
The Supreme Court granted TROs for senatorial aspirant Francis Leo Marcos and dismissed Albay governor Noel Rosal.
Garcia noted they would comply if further TROs were issued for other disqualified aspirants.
Printing of the 73 million ballots for the national and local elections began on January 6 but was halted due to the SC’s intervention. This pause led to the wastage of six million printed ballots.
