Comelec inspects ballots ahead of BOL plebiscites

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday inspected and monitored the printing of ballots that will be used for the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite on February 6.

In a report of Tina Panganiban-Perez on GMA News TV's Balitanghali on Monday, the Comelec and the National Printing Office (NPO) showed the printing of ballots for Lanao del Sur.

Printing of ballots for the Bangsamoro Organic Law plebiscite on Feb 6 on its last stages. Comelec says plebiscite ballots for Jan 21 already finished and being shipped to Mindanao. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/Qu4hwoRtDT

— Tina PanganibanPerez (@tinapperez) January 14, 2019

Comelec Deputy Executive Director for Administration Helen Flores said they are expecting to finish the printing of 600,000 ballots on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Officers from the Philippine National Police and organic security personnel from Comelec have been securing and monitoring the printing of ballots.

Meanwhile, 1.2 million ballots that will be used for the BOL plebiscite on January 21 in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cotabato City, Isabela and Basilan were already printed in December last year.

The Comelec earlier announced that the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL will be conducted on two separate days in 2019 — January 21 and February 6—to allow time for the full resolution of petitions for voluntary inclusion in the plebiscite.

On Sunday, the Comelec started sending the printed ballots to Mindanao.

The ballots were manually checked if they were correct.

Meanwhile, ballots for the May 2019 elections will be printed at the NPO.

The Comelec tested sample ballots for the May 2019 polls on vote counting machines on Monday at the NPO.

In preparation for the May 2019 elections, the Comelec is testing sample ballots on vote counting machines (VCMs.) @gmanews pic.twitter.com/5Ab0y9poS6

— Tina PanganibanPerez (@tinapperez) January 14, 2019

 —Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News