The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced yesterday that 66 aspirants will vie for the 12 senatorial posts in the May 2025 midterm polls.
“Next week, we will release the ballot faces for the entire country. The candidates for senators, the final number is 66. We did not get a TRO (temporary restraining order) from the Supreme Court,” Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia said in an interview.
He was referring to the 117 other bets who were declared nuisance candidates.
Garcia also said the placement of the 66 candidates on the ballot would be alphabetical.
Meanwhile, he said the poll body is looking to start printing the official ballots in early January.
“We will be printing the ballots, estimated at 73 million, for 77 days. It’s final, it’s January 6. If you compute 77 days, April 14 next year, the printing will be done. That is our timeline. We have a very tight timeline,” Garcia said.
The Comelec chief said the ballots should be in the municipality and city by the first week of May, so printing should be finished by April 14.
He also noted that they moved the start of the printing of the ballots from the middle of December to early next year to have time to resolve pending nuisance cases.
“The final date is Jan. 6 at all costs. At least the Comelec still has time to resolve the pending cases. With two printers of (service provider) Miru Systems, so 1.1 million per day,” Garcia said.
A total of 43,033 candidates for national and local positions have filed their certificates of candidacy for the upcoming polls.
