ELECTIONS chairman George Garcia yesterday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is mulling the removal of candidates’ photos in the official ballots to be used in the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) this October.
Garcia said only one in every five candidates in have submitted their photos.
He said such a predicament may force the poll body to forego plans to put photos of candidates in the official ballots.
“We cannot have some candidates with pictures and some others without pictures in the official ballots. Therefore, we may just decide to remove the pictures of candidates altogether,” he said.
Garcia said that “back in November 4 to 9, we had around 100 candidates that filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs). But, after writing them three times, only around 20 candidates responded and submitted their pictures that will be used in the official ballots.”
But Garcia said the Comelec will continue to print the logos of political parties in the official ballots.
“There are only seven political parties, and all of them submitted their logos,” he said.
The Comelec on Tuesday said it is set to commence with the printing of the official ballots for the BPE in August. An estimated 2.3 million to 2.5 million ballots are set to be printed.
