THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said the verification of the official ballots to be used in the October 13 Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) is expected to be completed by Tuesday next week.
Comelec chairman George Garcia said the printing of the 2,250,935 ballots for the BPE, which started on August 28, was completed on Wednesday morning.
Garcia said they have started the ballot verification, which they expect to finish at the earliest on Tuesday and at the latest, on Wednesday.
“Verification of ballots for Basilan, Maguindanao del Sur, Special Geographic Area, and Tawi-tawi has been completed. Only Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur ballots are currently undergoing verification,” he said.
“We expect them to be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday,” he added.
Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said verification is an integral process of their preparations.
“The ballots are being verified one by one through the automated counting machine (ACM) to ensure that they will be read by the machine correctly and, most importantly, read only by the ACM assigned to that ballot,” Laudiangco explained.
Laudiangco urged Bangsamoro voters that while waiting for October 13, they should view in advance the ballot faces they will use on election day.
“To find out what your ballot will look like in your area and district, just visit the Comelec website,” he said.
