The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will begin deploying official ballots on Tuesday, April 22, in preparation for the May 12 midterm elections.
According to Comelec Chairman George Garcia, the first batch of ballots will be delivered to the offices of city and municipal treasurers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Caraga, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Batanes.
Garcia said the deployment follows the near completion of the manual and machine verification of ballots. As of April 20, around 95 percent of the total 68,542,564 official ballots had undergone verification.
The Comelec aims to finish the nationwide deployment by the end of April, in time for the scheduled Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of vote-counting machines from May 2 to 10. Once FTS is completed, electoral boards will seal the machines, which will only be reopened on election day.
Comelec investigates campaign violations
The Comelec is currently investigating four cases of illegal campaigning during the Holy Week, including three involving national and local candidates and one involving a party-list group.
Garcia confirmed the investigations during a radio interview, where he also reported that the poll body is verifying an alleged vote buying incident in Quezon City. The report involves a local candidate who allegedly distributed ATM cards to voters.
He said the Comelec has received approximately 100 reports of vote buying across the country involving both individual candidates and party-list groups.
Vote buying and other campaign violations are classified as election offenses. Those found guilty may face permanent disqualification from public office and other legal penalties. Garcia added that the Comelec will withhold the proclamation of candidates with pending election offense cases, regardless of election results.