MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said the conduct of the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary elections will resume in Maluso, Basilan on Tuesday, Sept. 15, after flagging reports of compromised ballots.
According to Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia, the voting period will still run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“The same general instruction ang ipapatupad natin at therefore inaasahan natin na more or less mga 8 ng gabi ay tapos na yung pagbilang doon at pag-transmit ng results,” Garcia said in a press briefing.
(We will implement the same general instruction and therefore we expect that more or less, the counting of votes and transmission of results will be done by 8 p.m.)
READ: Comelec flags pre-shaded, compromised ballots in 36 Basilan precincts
He then maintained that it is just a continuation of the elections, and not a postponement.
This came after the Comelec discovered that the ballots of 36 out of 68 polling precincts in the Basilan town were already pre-shaded.
The Comelec then ordered the reprinting of over 16,000 ballots in the National Printing Office. Garcia said that estimated arrival of the ballots from Manila to Zamboanga was around 4 p.m. but it was delayed for two hours.
READ: 3 political parties lead BARMM parliament race in initial PPCRV count
He added that the ballots would be transferred from Zamboanga to Basilan. He noted that the reprinted ballots will be distributed to electoral board members on early Tuesday morning.
Garcia also said that winners in areas not affected by the incident in Masulo can already be proclaimed late Monday evening.
As of 9:42 p.m., the Comelec already received 91.4% of the total election returns (ERs). This is equivalent to 4,764 out of 5,212 ERs. /cb
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