MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) began printing ballots on Tuesday, Oct. 20, for the special election in Batanes and the plebiscite in Naga City.
Comelec is overseeing the ballot printing process at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.
Ballot printing, initially scheduled for Oct. 14, was moved to Oct. 19, according to an earlier Comelec advisory.
READ: Comelec postpones ballot printing for Naga plebiscite, Batanes special polls
According to the advisory, the number of ballots for the Naga City plebiscite needed to be revised based on the allocation committee’s recommendation.
Meanwhile, the printing of ballots for Batanes was also postponed because the NPO’s quotation was still pending, leaving the unit cost unavailable.
Printing was rescheduled again to Oct. 20 due to delays in finalizing the ballot layout for Naga City.
The Comelec Ballot Production Group said the NPO would print 120,720 ballots for the Naga City plebiscite and 13,138 ballots for the Batanes special election.
Ballot printing is expected to be completed by Tuesday, given the small number of ballots to be produced, provided that the process goes smoothly.
The Batanes special election on Nov. 28 will determine the representative of the province’s lone congressional district following the death of Rep. Ciriaco Gato Jr. last month.
Four candidates are vying for the vacant seat: Luis Andres Abad, John Gato, Marilou Cayco and Edward Ike De Sagon.
READ: 4 bets vying in Batanes special election for vacant congressional seat
Meanwhile, Naga City will hold a plebiscite on Nov. 21 to determine whether it will become a highly urbanized city.
Only registered voters in Naga City may participate in the plebiscite. The city has around 160,000 registered voters. /gsg
The post Comelec starts printing ballots for Batanes special polls, Naga plebiscite appeared first on Inquirer.net.