Miriam camp seeks ‘constant assurance’ that party included on ballot

The camp of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said it hopes to be assured that the ballots being printed now has her political party's name beside her name.

According to the presidential candidate's camp, her representative, lawyer Abel Maglanque, paid a visit at the National Printing Office (NPO) on Tuesday afternoon to observe the process.

The visit came a week after printing—which had been delayed for a couple of weeks—was halted anew because the People's Reform Party's initialism (PRP) was missing from the ballot face.

"Our office has no objection with the ballots that were shown today," Santiago's office told GMA News Online.

It added: "But we seek constant assurance from the Comelec [Commission on Elections] that the name of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago's party, PRP, will be included in all ballots, to be consistent with all other presidential candidates."

The party, via lawyer Fatima Lipp Panontongan, earlier wrote to poll body chief Andres Bautista, asking for "immediate action" on the matter, including:

• a written explanation on how the party's name was omitted "despite compliance with the 30-character limit as indicated in the certificate of candidacy;
• making "all existing ballots with such omission" invalid; and
• "all commitment" be made that the party will be included in the ballot.

Bautista assured that the revision had been made, after which the printing of official ballots for overseas absentee voting began.

The poll body has to print a total of 56.7 million ballots for registered voters that will use the automated election system. This includes 54.3 million ballots for local elections and 1,189,350 for overseas absentee voting.

It will also print 223,611 ballots for manual elections, to be used for local absentee voting (military, police, teachers, media) and select areas abroad. — BM, GMA News