The Commission on Elections on Wednesday said almost 46 percent of the nearly 64 million ballots for the May 13 midterm elections had been printed, assuring voters the printing of ballots was on track.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the Comelec was now printing more than a million per day, adding the National Printing Office was scheduled to add another printer.
At present, 28,887,821 ballots or 45.38 percent had been printed.
There are 61,843,750 registered voters for the May 13 polls, but more than 1.1 million ballots will be printed for use in the Final Testing and Sealing process, while the rest are demonstration ballots allotted for vote-counting machine roadshow and demonstration purposes.
Jimenez also said the poll body had completed printing 1.7 million overseas absentee voters’ ballots last Feb. 16.
The voting for overseas voters will begin on April 13, a month ahead of election day in the country.
Meanwhile, Comelec said candidates and political parties would have to pay a fine for submission of incomplete Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) in the May 13 polls.
According to Comelec Resolution 10505 dated Feb. 28 and released Wednesday, administrative penalties would be collected for incomplete SOCEs submitted on or before June 12.
“An administrative penalty shall be imposed in the amount of PHP1,000 against candidates, political parties, and contributors for incomplete submission of the required documents,” the resolution read.
Based on existing rules, an incomplete statement shall be considered “as not filed.”
The resolution noted that a SOCE is considered incomplete when any or all of the required documents are unsigned or not notarized; lacks details and entries in any or all the documents; and there is a missing document and receipt.
Likewise, it will be considered incomplete if it does not contain all the required information; or does not conform with the prescribed form.
With this, the poll body has released the SOCE and attachment forms to be used for the May 13 elections, to ensure that candidates and political parties shall be able to fully comply.
The law requires every candidate and political party to submit their SOCEs within 30 days after elections. With PNA
