Comelec: Around 6M printed ballots useless after SC TRO vs. disqualification

The 6 million ballots printed for the May polls will now be useless following the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order against the disqualification of senatorial aspirant Subair Guinthum Mustapha and others, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Wednesday.

“Yung naimprenta po namin na higit kumulang na 6 na milyong balota ay mababalewala na po lahat sapagkat wala po 'yung pangalan ng naturang kandidato,” Comelec chairperson George Garcia told Unang Balita in an interview. 

(The 6 million ballots we printed will all be useless because the name of the concerned candidate is not there.)

“And therefore, back to zero po kami (we are back to zero),” he added.

Each ballot costs P22, according to Garcia. This means the 6 million ballots cost around P132 million. 

“Medyo malaki na po. Kung anim na milyon 'yan, i-multiply ninyo po sa P22 isang balota,” he said. 

(The money spent is quite big already. If that's six million ballots, multiply it by P22 per ballot.)

“Pagkatapos napakadami po namin doon na mga tauhan na pinapasuweldo with overtime lahat po 'yun kasi nga po may night shift po kami,” he added. 

(Then, we have a lot of staff there who are paid with overtime because we have a night shift.)

The SC issued a TRO prohibiting the Comelec from disqualifying five aspirants, including Mustapha who is aiming for a national position and four others who are aiming for local positions. 

Garcia said the Comelec already started printing ballots for national candidates. 

In light of the TRO, the Comelec suspended the printing of ballots as the commission should include Mustapha in the list of senatorial candidates.

The Comelec started printing the 73 million ballots to be used for the elections on January 6 this year.

In a press conference, Garcia pointed out that the Comelec cannot wait for the decision of the SC on the petitions before printing the ballots because the commission is following a timeline.

“Paano kung nakakadalawa, tatlong linggo na matapos makapunta sa Korte Suprema ang petitioners tapos wala pang aksyon halimbawa ang Korte Suprema, naghihintay po kami for life sa pag-iimprenta ng balota,” he said.

(What if two, three weeks pass before the petitioners go to the Supreme Court and action has yet to be taken. We cannot wait for life before we print the ballots.)

“Hindi po pupuwedeng managyayari 'yun. We have to comply the timeline na meron ang Comelec,” he added.

(That cannot happen. We have to comply with the Comelec timeline.)

While there is a two-week delay in the printing of ballots, which deadline is set on April 14, Garcia said the 2025 elections will still proceed on schedule on May 12.

The Comelec is eyeing to resume the printing of ballots on Monday.

According to Garcia, the alphabetical candidate numbers of at least 12 senatorial candidates on the ballots will be affected if Mustapha is added to the list.

The 6 million printed ballots will undergo inventory and will be reported to the Commission on Audit (COA), Garcia said. The official said the poll body will have to pay for these items.

These printed ballots need to be shredded, according to Garcia.

Mock elections

Meanwhile, Comelec said that the mock elections have been moved to January 25 due to the TRO from the Supreme Court. 

“Yung ating mock elections na dapat naka-schedule sa Sabado ay ating ni-reset yan at ginawa po nating [Enero] 25 more or less,” Comelec chairperson George Garcia told Unang Balita in an interview. 

(Our mock elections that were supposed to be scheduled for Saturday, we reset that and made it January 25 more or less.) 

“Hopefully, natapos na namin yung babaguhing database election management system at pagse-serialize ng mga pangalan ng nga kandidato. Pati pagbabago pong mahigit 1,000 na ballot faces sa buong bansa,” he added. 

(Hopefully, we have finished modifying the database election management system and serialization of the names of the candidates. Also, the changes in more than 1,000 ballot faces across the country.)

Aside from the ballots and mock elections, the Comelec made adjustments on the candidates’ database, election management system (EMS), the automated counting machine (ACM), and the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS).

The poll body generated 1,667 ballot face templates reflecting the SC decision, created an inventory of all printed ballots, and conducted a study on whether the changes in the EMS warrant another trusted build.

Further, the Comelec also cancelled the live test for the trusted build of the online voting and counting system (OVCS).

—AOL/ VAL/ VDV, GMA Integrated News