Comelec eyes additional ballot boxes for 2022 polls

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is studying to procure additional ballot boxes, as some remain unavailable for the 2022 national and local elections due to unresolved poll protests.

Comelec Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. said that they have instructed the Special Bids and Awards Committee to prepare the terms of reference for the acquisition of additional boxes.

Kho said they may not need to acquire new ballot boxes if they get an approval from the courts and the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to allow them to use the ballot boxes for next year’s elections.

“We are conducting an inventory of the ballot boxes. There are protest cases so the ballots are in the ballot boxes… We need the approval of PET if we are allowed to use those ballot boxes,” Kho said in a mix of Filipino and English.

But Kho clarified that they still do not have the final decision yet as far as purchasing additional ballot boxes is concerned.

He said they are planning to procure additional vote counting machines (VCMs) in a bid to reduce the number of voters per polling precinct as part of their health measures against COVID-19.

He explained that reducing the number of voters would require additional VCMs.

“Hopefully it will reduce the number of voters from 1,000 to 800 voters or even lower. This is a function of cost. The machines are very expensive. If we increase the machines, increase clustered precincts, increase the number of electoral boards,” Kho said.

Aside from adding VCMs, Kho said they are also thinking of extending voting hours to limit the number of persons inside polling precincts at a given time.