Comelec begins printing automated elections system ballots for BARMM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 23) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday began printing automated election system or AES ballots for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), spokesman James Jimenez said.

The printing of the AES ballots to be used in the May national and local polls began shortly before 11:30 a.m. at the National Printing Office, Jimenez said on Twitter.

“Printing will start with the ballots for Lanao del Sur, numbering 685,643 ballots. The total number of BARMM ballots to be printed is 2,588,193,” he wrote.

The AES ballots are fed into vote-counting machines and are different from the manual kind which the Comelec already started producing last Thursday for absentee voting.

The poll body earlier explained that government officials and employees, members of the military and police, as well as media practitioners, are qualified for absentee voting in the upcoming elections.