Printed barangay and SK poll ballots may be used in 2018 —Comelec

Millions of ballots already printed for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabatan (SK) elections supposed to be held next month may still be reused in 2018, Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista said Thursday.

Congress is expected to pass a law postponing the barangay and SK elections slated in October and President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to approve it.

In an interview before the Senate finance subcommittee’s hearing on the proposed 2018 budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Bautista told reporters that some 26 million ballots for the barangay elections, and about 1.6 million ballots for the SK polls have already been printed.

The total number of ballots that needs to be printed is 59.5 million.

“Reusable naman. Ang ano lang talaga, yung petsa. Yun ang palitan or sabihin na ‘okay na rin yan,’ pwede gamitin for the election whenever they will be postponed…Yun ang gagamitin,” Bautista said.

The Comelec, Bautista said, has two options: either to pass an en banc resolution to use the ballots indicating the October 23, 2017 elections as is, or to use a sticker or “snowpake” (liquid eraser) to cover the date.

“Titimbangin natin yan pagdating ng araw kung anong option,” he said.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed their respective versions of bills postponing the barangay and SK elections to the second Monday of May 2018.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto II said the House of Representatives is expected to adopt the Senate version Monday so the bills would no longer be referred to the bicameral conference committee.

Congress is expected to submit the proposal for Duterte’s signature on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Bautista said the Comelec has already spent P600 million for the barangay and SK elections. The amount covers the priting of ballots and pay of personnel.

The P600 million is part of the P6-billion total budget for the said elections. —NB, GMA News