Despite the temporary suspension of the printing of ballots by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for the October 31, 2016 Synchonized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, pre-election preparations are still ongoing by the Office of the Provincial Election Supervisor, Comelec, Bohol.

The printing of ballots has been suspended since August 26, 2016 but will resume on September 1, 2016 if there is still no law or a joint resolution from Congress on the postponement, Atty. Genevieve Guevarra, Head of the Comelec Printing Committee said.

Provincial Election Supervisor, Atty. Eliseo Labaria told DYRD Balita that the listing of possible members of the Board of Election Tellers (BET) and the Project of Precints are still in progress – 62 days before the barangay and SK elections.

According to the calendar of activities set by the Comelec, August 31 to September 5, 2016 is the period to constitute the members of the Board of Election Tellers (BETs) and the Barangay Boards of Canvassers (BBOC).

The Comelec is now going through a list submitted by the Department of Education (DepEd) to constitute the members of the BETs to be composed of a chairman and two members, all public school teachers.

The Project Precincts is now in progress, according to Labaria, that will contain the list of polling precincts in the barangay, number of registered voters in each precincts and the number of established precincts for every clustered precincts.

The suspension of the printing of the ballots for the 2016 synchronized barangay and SK elections was in deference to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to postpone the elections fearing that drug money will be used to fund candidates. (Chito M. Visarra and Rey Tutas)