COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said Friday they were still “catching up” with the time line in preparing for a successful automated national and local polls in May this year.
He said he was confident they would be able to conduct an automated election on May 9, but that there were several dates from the time line that had been moved for a later period and they were still running after the original schedule.
“It seems like we are still catching up a little bit,” Bautista told reporters.
“I actually said when I entered the office in May 2015 that I thought we were 20 points down [in the preparation], but right now we are only 10 points [behind the original time line].”
And with less than a week before the Comelec finalizes its list of candidates, Bautista said the final list of presidential candidates was composed of seven contenders.
He said that despite their pending disqualification cases, presidential aspirants Senator Grace Poe and Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte would be included in the final list of candidates together with Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago of the People’s Reform Party, Mel Mendoza of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, Manuel Roxas II of the Liberal Party, and Rep. Roy Señeres of the Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka Workers and Peasants Party.
“That’s it. The Magnificent Seven,” Bautista said.
He said the Comelec would be able to finalize the Certified List of Presidential Candidate on Feb. 3.
“I think we can still catch up and beat the deadlines,” Bautista said.