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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Poll official says spoiled ballot in SG an unfortunate incident

Poll official says spoiled ballot in SG an unfortunate incident

Published Apr 12, 2022 04:41 pm

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia described the incident involving a spoiled ballot being issued to an overseas voter in Singapore as "unfortunate."

Comelec/MB

"We received late in the afternoon yesterday a confirmation from the Embassy of the Philippines in Singapore saying that indeed a ballot was given to a Filipino voter but this ballot was already considered as spolied ballot," he said in a television interview Tuesday, April 12.

"This is a very unfortunate incident. I was even asking yesterday if indeed it was only one ballot or several ballots. But at least the Embassy confirmed it involved only one ballot," added Garcia.

He said such incident, which should be investigated, should not happen again.

"This should not happen again. We should really find out why this spoiled ballot was in the frst place given to the voter. This should have been segregated and put in an envelope for spoiled ballot and should not be included in the good or valid ballots. So we are asking the reason why and definitely we will be able to get that answer in the next few days," Garcia said.

He expressed concern as such incident could affect the credibility of the May 2022 polls.

"A single incident like this can create doubt to the integrity of the entire process," Garcia said.

"We are pleading to the electoral boards that the same incident should not happen again in the future," he added.

Related Tags

commissioner george garcia Comelec Commission on Elections (Comelec)
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