Comelec resets printing of party-lists, senatorial bets

The Commission on Elections said Thursday the printing of the ballots for the 2019 midterm elections has been rescheduled to the first week of February as the final list for party-list and senatorial candidates will be released on the last week of January.

Poll Commissioner Sheriff Abas said the Comelec will give priority to the completion of the official list of candidates for the elections.

“We may not yet release the list as there are still some cases that have to be decided upon,” Abas said.

Earlier, the Comelec said it would release the official list on Dec. 15, 2018, but that did not happen as it was still resolving the disqualification cases.

And then the poll body said it would release he official list of candidates before Jan. 23 in time for the start printing of ballots on the third week of January.

The agency said it was busy with the plebiscite that will determine the areas to be covered by the Bangsamoro Organic Law in Muslim Mindanao.

But it said the delay in the printing of ballots would not affect the May 2019 elections, adding it was right on track with the other activities in the election calendar.

The Comelec said it would start printing the ballots on the fourth week of February even if some of the cases had not been resolved, adding that once a candidate’s name was printed on the ballot, the vote-counting machines would still counting the votes even if the bet was disqualified later on.