AFTER weeks of delay, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) restarts the printing of official ballots for the May 2025 national, local, and Bangsamoro parliamentary polls today, Monday, at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.
In an interview, Comelec chief George Garcia said they will commence printing 73 million official ballots with only 105 days before the May 12 polls.
“We are determined to push through with the printing of the ballots at all costs. We cannot afford any more delays. The three weeks (of delay) is already a long time. We are running out of time,” said Garcia.
“Monday is our self-imposed last deadline to restart ballot printing. We will have to print the ballots by Monday,” he added.
On Sunday, the Comelec uploaded all the new ballot face templates on its official website (https://comelec.gov.ph/?r=2025NLE/2025BallotFace).
The poll body started printing ballots at the NPO last January 6 but suspended everything on January 14 after the Supreme Court (SC) issued several temporary restraining orders (TROs) against the Comelec and its decisions to disqualify or declare several aspirants as nuisance candidates.
The Comelec had several attempts to restart printing ballots including January 20, 22, and 24 but was thwarted by succeeding TROs from the SC.
The restart of printing today was made possible by the withdrawal of the senatorial bid of Francis Leo Marcos.
Garcia had previously said that each alteration in the ballot face templates would require two to three days.
MOCK POLLS
“Agata Agta” was elected the top senator while “Mobile Legends” was voted as the number one party-list organization when the Comelec conducted mock polls last Saturday as part of its preparations for the May 2025 elections.
Based on the Certificate of Canvass (COC) provided by the Comelec, Agata Agta got the highest number of votes among senatorial bets with 833, followed by Ricardo Dalisay with 772 votes.
Also voted as part of the Magic 12 were Facundo Caballero (735 votes), Marga Bartolome (668), Flavio Batungbakal (665), Claudia Buenavista (663), Stacey Bagabag (646), Matilde Asuncion (639), Sheena Catacutan (606), Sabrina Cabral (593), Juan dela Cruz (584), and Sky Love Cruz (570).
The party-list organizations that won in the mock polls were Mobile Legends (297 votes), Safeguard (108), Puso (85), Army (53), and Bagwis (46).
Also getting a high number of votes were party-list groups Marites Inc (40), Bisaya Warriors (37), Eat Bulaga (36), Agimat (36), and Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko (35).
Out of the 3,200 registered voters, a total of 2,793 voted for an 87.28 percent voter turnout in the mock elections.
The Comelec held mock polls in 30 barangays in 15 cities and municipalities across the country.
The mock polls were held to enable the Comelec to evaluate the readiness of the automated election system (AES) for the coming poll exercise.
“We wanted to see the actual performance of the machines, time and motion, transmission of results, and if the entire system is integrated,” Garcia said, adding the exercise was also aimed at showcasing the features of the AES.
“The public should realize that they shouldn’t be intimated to vote. The automated elections are very user-friendly and they can easily cast their votes this coming election,” said Garcia.
Under Republic Act No. 9369, the conduct of mock elections is one of the requirements by the Technical Evaluation Committee before issuing its certification that the automated election system is operating properly, securely, and accurately.