Comelec to use QC stadium as additional venue for ballot verification
Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will use the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City as an additional venue for ballot verification for the 2025 elections.
During the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum in Malate, Manila on Wednesday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the QC local government gave the poll body the green light to use the stadium for free for two months.
“We thank the local government unit of Quezon City because they entrusted their Amoranto Stadium to us,” Garcia said in Filipino.
“The local government unit of Quezon City will let us use the whole Amoranto Stadium for free,” he added.
READ: Comelec seeks additional space at NPO for ballot verification
Garcia on Tuesday said the lack of space in the National Printing Office (NPO) for the storage of 500 automated counting machines (ACMs) they use for ballot verification prompted the Comelec to seek additional venue.
He said the Comelec can only use 250 machines per day due to the lack of space. He also said the ballot verification is done manually; the printed ballots are being fed into the ACMs.
Now that the Comelec can use the stadium, the poll body can fast-track the ballot verification with the rest of the ACMs, Garcia added.
The Comelec chief also said the poll body chose between the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) building beside the NPO and the Amoranto Stadium.
“NIA is the better option in terms of nearness to the NPO. We inspected it last Saturday. But Amoranto [Stadium] is bigger. We will use the whole center of the basketball court and they will close the whole Amoranto [Stadium] for the use of Comelec for at least two months,” he explained.
Garcia also said that the stadium would be secured because law enforcement authorities, election observers, and Comelec staff would monitor the ballot verification, and the process would be livestreamed.
“Even if the space is big, the entry and exit of personnel will be limited and they will need identification,” he added.
He reiterated that the transport of the ballots to the stadium would only be done with the presence of the media, election observers, and watchdogs.
READ: 16.3% of midterm poll ballots printed – Comelec
He also shared that approximately 13 million ballots have already been printed since the poll body resumed its production on January 27.
The Comelec began printing ballots on January 6, with approximately 6 million ballots as the initial outputs.
However, the poll body stopped the ballot printing after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order directing the Comelec to include the names of senatorial aspirants who were initially declared as nuisance candidates.
