EVEN if the high court decides that independent bet Sen. Grace Poe is disqualified from running for president, her name will stay on the official ballot for the 2016 polls, Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista said Tuesday.
With nearly 10.5 million or one-fourth of the total number of ballots printed, Bautista said the poll body might not be able to meet the deadline if it prints again from scratch. The Comelec is printing 54,363,844 ballots.
Printing will still push through in case Poe is disqualified. She cannot field a substitute because she is independent. The law only allows substitutions from the same political party or of the same surnames.
The Comelec has ruled that Poe is disqualified from running for the top post, citing misrepresentations about her citizenship and residency in her certificate of candidacy. The case is awaiting decision from the high court. (See Poe pushes campaign amid trials, banks on defending poor)
Votes in favor of Poe will still be physically counted but will be declared stray, the poll chief said.
Of the 10,533,360 ballots that have been printed as of Feb. 29, 208,478 ballots will be subject to quarantine and 71,360 for reprinting. Bautista said reprinting is done in case of technical errors in the ballot layout such as oversized margins, among others.
The Comelec rolled out the printing of ballots on Feb. 15, after it was postponed four times. (See Comelec rolls out printing of ballots)
The ballots could still be remedied in case there are defects prior to disposal. Comelec has yet to provide protocols on the disposal of rejected ballots.
A total of 4.6 million ballots have been verified as of 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. To speed up verification, the poll chief said the Comelec will employ 50 more machines or verifiers starting Wednesday. (By Maria Feona Imperial)