'Bistek' wants sample ballots for Quezon City voters

MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party mayoralty candidate and Quezon City Vice Mayor Herbert ‘Bistek’ Bautista yesterday called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure that each of the more than 1.2 million voters in the city will get their sample ballots the soonest time possible.

“Time is running out. We really hope that every registered voter in Quezon City will receive their sample ballots so they can practice voting before the elections,” Bautista said.

Bautista, who is gunning for the mayoral seat in one of the vote-rich cities in the country, made the call as the Comelec starts distributing sample ballots to all the voters by mail this week as part of its continuing information campaign on the upcoming May 10 polls.

Bautista also urged other local leaders to pressure the Comelec to do its job and make sure that every voter gets their sample ballots before election day.

“We don’t want our voters to be caught by surprise,” Bautista said. He added that unlike in the official ballots, all instructions in the sample ballots, which will be distributed by mail, is written in Filipino.

The sample ballots will take the place of the regular voters’ information sheet ( VIS ), which is a list of candidates, he said. The law provides that all registered voters be given VIS before election day.

Voters are expected to get the VIS in the form of a 25-inch long ballots, with printed names of candidates back-to-back.

Bautista also asked the Comelec to monitor candidates who will take advantage by reproducing the sample ballots and then distributing them to the voters during the election day.