Comelec defers anew printing of ballots

The resumption of printing of the 73 million ballots for the May midterm elections was deferred anew, as the Supreme Court (SC) issued another temporary restraining order (TRO) against the disqualification of a senatorial aspirant.

- With Daphne Galvez

Following the SC's order, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has again deferred the printing of official ballots.

"We can postpone the printing of ballots to Saturday, instead of tomorrow, because of the overtime our Comelec personnel will need to update the database. At the same time, we need to change the 1,697 ballot faces of the entire country," Comelec Chairman George Garcia said in Filipino in a radio interview yesterday.

Garcia said the Comelec will exhaust all efforts to make all the necessary amendments and finish procedures by Friday, so they could resume ballot printing by Saturday.

Yesterday, the SC issued a temporary restraining order against the Comelec, allowing the inclusion of Francis Leo Antonio Marcos among the list of senatorial candidates to be printed on the ballot.

The High Court also temporarily barred the poll body from disqualifying dismissed Albay governor Noel Rosal from running for governor anew.