Comelec to destroy 6M printed ballots over court stay orders

Metro Manila, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will destroy six million printed ballots after the Supreme Court issued stay orders on five poll-related cases.

The temporary restraining orders (TRO) prohibited Comelec from disqualifying, declaring as nuisance candidates, canceling a certificate of candidacy, and ordered the commission to accept a COC.

This prompted the Comelec to stop the ballot printing.

“The inventory of all the ballots already printed, its transport for safekeeping to the Comelec Santa Rosa Warehouse, and its destruction to prevent any unauthorized use will commence on January 15, 2025,” it said in a statement.

The other steps that the poll body will undertake are:

+ reprinting of affected ballots

+ generation of 1,667 ballot face templates

+ amendment to the candidates’ database, the election management system (EMS), the automated counting machine, and the consolidation and canvassing system

+ conduct a study on whether or not the EMS and candidate database would entail another trusted build

+ cancelation and rescheduling of the trusted build of the online voting and counting system scheduled on Jan. 15

+ cancelation and rescheduling of the mock elections

Comelec said the measures are “time consuming and very costly” but it acknowledges the TROs as part of legal processes.

“There is no cause for alarm, concern or panic, as the Comelec is fully in control of the situation,” it said.