Updated November 03, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will install a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera at the National Printing Office (NPO) when it starts printing the ballots to be used in the May 10, 2010 local and national polls.Comelec chairman Jose Melo said the CCTV camera would be working “24/7” or round-the-clock to ensure that all activities at the NPO are captured on video.
Melo noted the poll body might also invite political parties and poll watchdog groups to send their representatives to observe the printing procedure.
The schemes are meant to allay fears that extra ballots will be printed to rig the results of next year’s elections. The state-run NPO is the agency authorized to print government paraphernalia like receipts and ballots.
But the Comelec has no plan of printing extra ballots especially since the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the polls will not recognize ballots in excess of the registered voters at a specific precinct.
Melo added they hope to begin the printing in early January 2010 so the Comelec would speed up the screening of voters who will file their certificates of candidacy from Nov. 20 to 30.
It is estimated that some 600 candidates’ names would be printed back-to-back on each ballot since next year’s polls involve both local and national elections.
Comelec records showed that 17,888 elective posts are up for grabs, including one each for president and vice president; 12 for senator; 222 district congressmen; 80 for governor; 80 for vice governor; 762 provincial board members; 120 each for city mayor and city vice mayor; 1,514 each for municipal mayor and vice municipal mayor; 1,346 city councilors and 12,116 municipal councilors.
The figure does not include the seats allocated for party-list groups which are dependent on the number of votes they get.
Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=520000&publicationSubCategoryId=68
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