No security markings on ARMM ballots

Monday, 22 February 2010 11:11 AM Fidelis Angela Tan

The Inquirer reported that the almost two million ballots printed by the National Printing Office (NPO) to be used by voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the elections later this year do not have the security markings of the printing agency.

“The ARMM ballots have no markings,” said an anonymous source at the NPO. “Some NPO employees were afraid because of this.”

The lack of security markings is supposedly due to machine failure.

Although the ballots have the seals of the Commission on the Elections (Comelec) and its corporate partner Smartmatic-TIM, the source added that all materials printed by the NPO need to have its security mark as a means of proving that they came from the printing office.

The lack of NPO security markings also makes the ballots easier to copy, as anyone with the right kind of paper and printer would be able to replicate the ballots.

The newspaper's source warned that the lack of security markings could be “groundwork for something anomalous,” saying the illegal replication of ballots had been done before in an electoral scam in Lanao del Sur during the 2008 ARMM polls.

“They photocopied the ballots using high quality paper. This is what they gave to the voters and collected them. The corrupt BEIs [board of election inspectors] hid the real ballots and filled these up and fed them to the machines,” the source said.

The Inquirer added that Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz and Fr. Joe Dizon of the poll watchdog Kontra Daya said that the ballots were now “useless.”

“Why was there a mistake in printing? It’s too gross a mistake. There must be a purpose,” said Cruz. “Those 1.7 million ballots should be burned in public and should be shown in public.”

Comelec response

According to the poll body however, the lack of NPO security markings is "not critical" and the security markings of Smartmatic-TIM and Comelec are enough.

"[There are two sets of] security markings. The NPO marks are not critical, [and are just an] added layer," said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

"Even without the NPO security marks, the ballots would be protected," he added.

Smartmatic-Asia President Cesar Flores added that all ballots printed have UV marks as an extra precaution.

Comelec announced earlier last week that the ballots for ARMM were already packed and ready to be shipped.

According to Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, the ballots are 8.5 inches wide and 27 inches long and would contain Arabic translations of the instructions for voting.

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