THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday, April 21, began the simulation of the May 14 village and youth council (Sangguniang Kabataan or SK) elections at a school in Tondo, Manila.
The poll body scheduled the conduct of the mock polls at the Rosario Almario Elementary School in Tondo's Kagitingan village from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. of Saturday.
Comelec acting chairman Al Parreño, Comelec commissioner Sheriff Abas, and Comelec-Project Management Office head director Teopisto Elnas supervised the simulated voting.
The Board of Election Tellers prepared elections forms and paraphernalia for the mock elections.
Voters aged 15 to 17 were given ballots for youth council elections, while those aged 18 to 30 were given two ballots since they are eligible to vote both in the village and youth council polls.
The Comelec simulated voting and canvassing of votes to test the readiness of the members of the board of election inspectors and canvassers, as well as to identify potential problems.
Ballots that will be used all throughout the country, except in Mindanao, for the May 14 twin polls will bear the date "October 23, 2017," because these were printed in 2017, supposedly for use in the postponed elections last year.
Comelec Resolution 10248 provides that 59,578,346 official ballots printed from August 9, 2017 to September 30, 2017 will be used by voters in Manila, Luzon, and Visayas.
New and additional ballots, accountable and non-accountable forms will also be printed for those who registered from November 6, 2017 to November 30, 2017. (SunStar Philippines)