THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to conduct the mock polls for the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) on July 25 as part of its preparations for the October 13 election.
Comelec chairman George Garcia said the mock polls will be held in Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur.
He said the poll body has started printing the forms and ballots that will be used for the mock polls.
He said they have also conducted field test and roadshow activities.
“We are printing at the National Printing Office around 200,000 ballots, including those for field testing, mock elections, and our roadshow,” said Garcia.
As for the printing of official ballots, the poll chief said they are eyeing the middle of August as the starting point since they will only be printing 2.3 million ballots for the October 13 polls.
“We will need about seven days to print the ballots with three days for the printing and four days for the verification,” said Garcia.
He said this will give the Comelec enough time to pack and ship the official ballots to BARMM before the end of September for distribution to the different municipalities.
Meanwhile, Garcia said that despite going full blast with its preparations for the October 13 polls, the Comelec is not totally shutting the door on adopting the decision of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) parliament in relation to the redistribution of the seat originally allocated for Sulu.
“We are not saying that it is no longer possible or that it is not possible (to adopt changes),” he said.
Likely to be affected by the BTA decision will be the period for the filing of the certificate of candidacy and the date when the new law would take effect.
Garcia reiterated his appeal to the BTA to hasten their passage of the law on the Sulu parliamentary seats.
“Please don’t let our preparations be adversely affected, one that will result in problems that will reflect on the conduct of the elections,” he said.
The exclusion of Sulu province from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by the Supreme Court (SC) was among the reasons for the postponement of the BPE from May 12 to October 13.
This as there is a need for the BTA to amend the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Districts Act of 2024 and decide what to do with the seven parliamentary seats allocated for Sulu.
Last June 16, the Comelec said it is going full blast with their BPE preparations as they can no longer afford to wait for the BTA decision.
