MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The newly circulating images of a single ballot in New Zealand without presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo’s name is likely “fake news,” according to Poll Commissioner George Garcia because a batch of ballots is produced from only one template.

“We only have one ballot template for [the] entire OFOV (Office for Overseas Voting) regardless of the post,” Garcia told reporters in a group message.

“Fake news everywhere, dami na namin referral sa (we have many referrals already to the) NBI (National Bureau of Investigation),” he added.

The photo of the ballot had its clustered precinct ID and the number of precincts in the cluster modified or blocked out, according to the commissioner. 

“Maganda po sana kung hindi erased ang clustered precinct [ID] at precincts in cluster para malaman po kung natanggap mismo ng kababayan natin ‘yan, madali niyan pa-picture hawak ang balota na ‘yan,” Garcia said. 

(It would have been nice if the clustered precinct [ID] and precincts in the cluster had not been erased so that we would know if our compatriots received that since it would be easy to take a picture of it like that.)

Garcia went on to say that because New Zealand only has one serialized template, there should have been at least 1,000 ballots that excluded a particular candidate.

This came after the Philippine Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, acknowledged reports circulating on social media that a voting ballot from the embassy excluded one of the presidential candidates’ name 

“Anyone who claims that they have received a ballot with an erasure/non-appearance of any of the entries is requested to return the entire ballot package to the Embassy so that we can verify the claim,” it said.

The overseas voting for the 2022 elections began on April 10 and will continue until May 9, or the Philippine Election Day. – WhatALife!

Source: (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

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Also read: Guide to Overseas Absentee Voting (OFW voting) in Elections 2022