Comelec starts the deployment of ballots for the 2022 polls

MANILA, Philippines, April 20 ------ The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday, April 20, started delivering the ballots that will be used for the 2022 elections to city and municipal treasurers’ offices across the Philippines.

Ahead of the dispatch, the Comelec conducted a press conference on Tuesday night, April 19, at its warehouse in Pasig, where the ballots were stored. “We hope to finish the deployment by May 5 except if there are delays that we won’t be able to predict,” said Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino.

The Comelec finished printing 67.4 million ballots at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City on April 2. The poll body was ahead of its target completion date of April 25. Of this number, around 1.7 million ballots were already deployed abroad for the month-long overseas voting that kicked off on April 10.

Aside from ballots, the Comelec had already delivered ballot boxes to provincial warehouses in February and had begun transporting vote-counting machines (VCMs) to similar destinations in early April. The general elections in the Philippines will take place on May 9, and will determine a new set of leaders for over 18,000 national and local posts, including President Rodrigo Duterte’s successor.

Source: rappler.com