Wrong ballots delay election in Naawan

TheMindanaoToday.com | Wrong ballots delay election in Naawan 

By: Uriel Quilinguing

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Just when balloting for the midterm National and Local Elections (NLE) was about to end in all places across the country 7 p.m. on Monday, May 12, hundreds of voters in Barangay Maputi, Naawan town, Misamis Oriental, who refused to be disenfranchised, had just started casting their votes.

They had to wait for the entire day so they can vote because they cannot use official ballots that was delivered earlier, these being intended for a barangay of San Fernando town in the province of Cebu, according to Regional Election Director Renato Magbutay of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Northern Mindanao.

“They (members of the Election Board) found out the official ballots (in their possession) were for San Fernando, Cebu afternoon of Sunday, May 11,” Magbutay said in a post-election forum here on Wednesday, May 14.

He said they relayed the information on mistaken delivery of ballots to their Central Office and to the National Printing Office and that instead of looking for the package of official ballots for Maputi, Naawan, new ones were printed.

These, he said, were rushed as an air cargo and delivered to the voting center where these are needed by voters who had signified to exercise their rights to elect local officials and lawmakers over at night and until wee hours.

Casting of votes for persons with special needs was supposed to be from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and followed by all eligible voters at 7 a.m., yet those whose names were listed in four precincts clustered into one classroom at Maputi Elementary School had reset the official voting period from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Naawan Municipal Administrator Boy Velez said the misdelivered ballots involved 763 registered voters whose names were listed under Precinct Nos. 33-A, 33-B, 34-A, and 34-B and were clustered into one classroom with an assigned Automated Counting Machine (ACM) and designated members of the Electoral Board.

Velez said all registered voters of the four precincts were informed of the mistaken delivery of the ballots and were willing to wait until the official ballots are available.

Registered voter Cocoy Panilag, a native of Maputi who has actively participated in all past elections, said: “This is the first time an election was delayed, fortunately it affected only four precincts.” It took him less than 15 minutes to vote from the time he arrived at the polling place.

Comelec’s Magbutay said they noticed a relatively high turnout of voters in Misamis Oriental, better than the 82% regional average in Northern Mindanao. In fact, Comelec Misamis Oriental placed the voters’ turnout at 86.8% although Naawan posted 79.16%–the lowest among 23 municipalities and two component cities in the province.

Naawan, which is composed of 10 barangays, has 16,367 voters for the 2025 NLE and 12,948 of them had voted.

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