Official ballots sent to Negros Oriental LGUs
DUMAGUETE CITY , Philippines – Except for the town of Valencia, the official ballots intended for Negros Oriental for the May 13 elections were delivered to the different towns and cities of the province on Wednesday.
The deployment of the official ballots by 2GO, the official cargo forwarder of the Comelec in the Visayas, was done simultaneously in five delivery vans beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday. Police personnel in marked vehicles escorted the deliveries, which were received by city and municipal treasurers and election officers.
Dumaguete election officer Jerome Brillantes said the official ballots will be stored at the city and municipal treasurer’s offices until deployment a day or two ahead of the elections to their assigned voting precincts.
The Valencia LGU had requested the official ballots delivered Thursday because some representatives from the different political parties/candidates in that area had to be informed yet.
Verification of the official ballots, which are placed in sealed boxes, may be done today (Friday), according to Brillantes, who however clarified that the inventory or verification would be limited only to cross-checking the allocated official ballots for each area. The sealed boxes will not be opened until these are delivered to the different voting precincts, he said.
Brillantes said that, unlike in the 2010 polls, there is no Comelec resolution this time granting treasurers to open the boxes containing the official ballots prior to delivery to the voting precincts. The Board of Election Inspectors is the one tasked to open these boxes once they arrive at their individual destinations, he added.
With the law mandating one official ballot per registered voter, it is expected that a total of 722,265 official ballots corresponding to the total number of registered voters in Negros Oriental have been delivered.
Brillantes reiterated there are no extra official ballots for this year’s mid-term elections. (FREEMAN)
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